Dick Goldman
Subject: Memories and Birthdays
So I just sent Dale Bagby another birthday wish as I have always remembered her birthday since we were in 5th grade and I sat behind her. I learned her birthday was October 18 which is exactly 10 days before mine putting her in the category of an older woman. We are both, along with another large group, a part of the mid-semester half grade group that by the eighth grade had to either move up a half year in class or go backwards. So those of us who moved up are just now experiencing our 75th birthdays, later than most of you.
At 75, we all have lots of memories. There is a book entitiled "Is There Life After High School?" I think the essence of the book is that we all live up to or down from the image we created of ourselves in high school. This website keeps the experience of growing up in those years in front of us.
So with these sort of memories in my head (and my 75 coming up next Monday), I took my daughter, Emily, to see "Beautiful" on Broadway, as it is scheduled for its final performance next Sunday. It's a musical about Carole King's life and music. My wife JoEllen had seen it already with her sisters.
It was nothing short of amazing and wonderful. It featured the songs she wrote for others up to the times she performed her own music which exploded onto the music scene in her album, Tapestry. It also included many other hits from her associates at her studio in New York. It was inspiring and uplifting, but for most of the audience it was nostalgic.
My thoughts during and after and in going through the photos (particularly Memory Lane) on this website, reminded me of just how blessed we all were to grow up in the times we did. Our era's music changed the world of music forever. (It seems doubtful that in another 50 years there will be a muscial play written about any singer/songwriter of today's music).
Our times were special and we have the music of so many wonderful artists to remind us of the wonderful times in which we grew up, the teachers we had, the leaders we had, the neighborhoods in which we lived, riding our bikes wherever we needed to go, and playing with our friends. I remember fliping baseball cards with Stephen Miller, riding on the handlebars of Lee Ellman's bike, playing sand lot baseball with Bobby Bayliss, playing chess with Gilbert Brown, shooting baskets at Miller's house with Sidney Padow, playing music with Dickie Klein and Andy Bendhiem, dancing cheek to cheek with Linda Salsbury (to "Chances Are" by Johny Mathis), watching Bobby Caudle quarterback our football team, talking about religion with Alex Williams, Junior Stunt Night and Billy Collins, and so much more. We cannot duplicate those times, but can remember them and only hope for a future where the rich environment in which we grew up, can be had in some other form for our communities and family members.
Happy fourth quarter birthday to all of you.
Dixk(ie) Goldman
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