Joe Bowyer
Pharos-Tribune columnist
July 11, 2008 07:34 pm
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Last night, Janie and I decided to watch a movie, since the only thing on the dish was re-runs of re-runs for which I pay $50 a month. Of course, you can get movies on the dish, but they are re-runs of re-runs also. Don’t ask me why I spend $50 a month for it, because I can’t think of a good answer. Anyway I picked “S’wanee River,” which is the story of Stephen Collins Foster. He wrote songs of the old south as it was before the days of the Civil War. Many of them were catchy songs such as “Oh Susanna” and “Camptown Races,” and there were the beautiful ones such as “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair.”
If I wrote the titles to all of his music it would take more room than I’ve got for this article because he wrote hundreds of them. The S’wanee River, which is the title of the movie, was actually spelled Suwanee and runs across the top of Florida. He dropped the “u” syllable out of it to make the name work out right in his song. If you are ever heading down Interstate 75 near the top of Florida, watch for the sign that says Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center near the little town of Genoa and visit it. It will be worth your while.
Janie and I are very fortunate to have visited it many years ago on a business trip to Miami. On that day there were two people, a male baritone, and a female soprano singing his songs. I guess they did it at regular intervals, and Janie and I just happened to be lucky. The time was around 11 o’clock, and they sang until noon. I stood at the rear of the building and sang along with them. It was beautiful. They had brought a picnic lunch along, and so had Janie and I, so we joined them during the lunch hour, and became acquainted. After eating, they sang again, and Janie and I stayed to listen and sing. We considered our time well spent.
As we watched the movie last night, and listened to the songs, we talked about how the music in our nation has changed, and no matter what you want to say, or whatever “old fogey” names you want to call me, most of the music has become little more than noise. It grates in my ears while I am shopping at a grocery store, and it gives me indigestion and makes it hard to carry on a conversation while eating at a restaurant. Oh, for the days of those who knew what music was, and how to write it and sing it. I guess it’s gone forever, along with gentleness that once marked our Sunday afternoons, and the friendliness of shopping with friends in downtown Logansport.
When I think of all we have lost in our country, it makes me sad, and I’m not talking about being able to fill a gas tank for $20. I’m talking about the things that made our lives exceptional when held up to the rest of the world. I’m talking about the times when everyone seemed to care about everyone else, when a bicycle wreck on the sidewalk would bring three or four mothers out of their homes to see if the victim was OK. When help was always available, because if you had car trouble along the road, the first car that came along stopped to see what you needed.
Out in the country we had threshing rings, in which a group of farmers worked together in friendship to get everyone’s grain in. Neighbors helped each other make hay, and if someone was sick, the neighbors put his crops in the ground or harvested them, whichever was needed. This was the norm, not the exception. What has happened to us? Are we willing to let all that was good drift away?
I remember when Janie and I were married in a time when marriage was sacred and solemn. Pledges that were made on that day were meant to be kept, and most of us kept them. Marriage was respected, Christ was Holy, and church was where you should be on Sunday. We weren’t all churchgoers, but we respected those who were. Then came Madeline Murray O’Hare, who, with the aid of cowardly, witless congressmen and some stupid lawyers, destroyed the key that made this country exceptional from its very beginning. Now we have a void that has slowly poisoned our great country as it festers even yet because a few blind people can still influence those who are not strong enough to stand for what is right, or just don’t know what is right, and deserve to be thrown out of office.
How far down the slope will we slip? Is the lack of prayer in schools not enough? Are the gang shootings that kill innocent children who are bystanders not enough? Is the disrespect of religion not enough? Are all those young girls pregnant out of wedlock not enough? Is becoming a Third World country not enough? There is no limit to how far we can slip. The question is, when will we say enough to our leaders?
Joe Bowyer is a columnist for the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com
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