ole blue eyes

Sometimes I miss Sinatra

     He seemed like an arrogant kind of guy, maybe a little too tight with the mobsters, but some of his music I love.
     When I was in high school and the summer of my first year of college, I would work late in a grocery store.  Then at night, after the deli was closed or the shelves were stocked, I would go home, have a cup of tea and listen to WGN radio.
     Mainly for the Cubs.  But there was also a night personality, and I probably will spell his name incorrectly, Franklyn McCormack.  He might have even been on WMAQ, but I think it was GN.
     Anyway, he came on about midnight and would play the coolest music and read poetry, short stories, all in a wonderful deep, soothing voice.
     That's how I first heard about Kahil Gibran.... and I still have the echoes "how do I love thee, let me count the ways......."
     And Sinatra.
     Usually the slower stuff.....nothing was loud or fast on this show.
      I remember sitting at the table, listening to the crunches from the closet, drinking hot t ea, having a muffin with butter and grape jelly and listening to "It's quarter to three, ain't nobody here except you and me......"     "so make it one for my baby, and one more for the road."...... and I was hooked on Sinatra.
     I had a teacher for English my senior year.  She always wore American flags on her lapels.  She was about 160.  I had an assignment to write a short paper about someone I idolized and I picked Sinatra.
     I remember Mrs. B standing in front of the room and telling me and the rest of the class what a godless, classless, mobster, communistic, smug, cheating,  poor excuse for an American Sinatra was.....and I think that sealed my idolization factor.
     I still love the words.
     And now the days grow short, I'm in the autumn of the year.  And I think of my life as vintage  wine from a fine old keg.  And it poured sweet and clear.  From the brim to the dreg.  It was a very good year.
     Appropriate words for the time of year, and my time in life.
     The frost is on the pumpkin tonight.  Autumn has finally arrived.
     How do I love thee....let me count the ways.