Real Talk!

Elvis released "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" and "Doncha Think It's Time". Perry Como had a hit with "Magic Moments" and Buddy Holly released "That'll Be The Day". Chuck Berry was belting out "Johnny B. Goode", The Elegants were doo-whoppin "Little Star", Little Richard was squealing "Good Golly, Miss Molly", Eddie Cochrane was picking "Summertime Blues".

Connie Francis' "Who's Sorry Now" reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. The Coasters had us laughing with "Yakety-Yak", The Monotones were writing "The Book of Love" and The Everly Brothers presented ethereal harmony with "All I Have To Do Is Dream".

A mouse was launched in a Thor-Able "Reentry 1" test as the first launch in the Mouse in Able (MIA) project. It was lost when the rocket was destroyed after launch from Cape Canaveral.

Americans were lining up to buy hula-hoops. Popular Mechanics warned that robots were slowly taking over. Ezra Pound was released from a medical asylum, after twelve years after being declared insane. Liz Taylor was filming "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". Lana Turnerfs daughter stabbed Johnny Stompanato to death. Robin Hood Tales stopped being published. The term "Beatnik" was coined. Lenny Bruce confided: "I'm just like everybody else. I want to be a non- conformist, too!''

On this 50th anniversary of April 16, 1958 I would like to share a couple of oldies but goodies:

WARNING by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Crabbit Old Woman by Phyllis McCormack

What do you see nurse,
What do you see?
What are you thinking
When you look at me?
A crabbit old woman,
Not very wise,
Uncertain of habit
With far away eyes.

Who dribbles her food
And makes no reply;
Then you say in a loud voice,
"I do wish you'd try."
Who seems not to notice
The things that you do,
And forever is losing
A stocking or shoe.

Unresisting or not,
Lets you do as you will;
With bathing or feeding,
The long day to fill.
Is that what you're thinking,
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes nurse,
You're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am,
As I sit here so still,
As I move at your bidding,
As I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of ten ...
With a father and mother,
And brothers and sisters
Who love one another.

A girl of sixteen,
With wings on her feet;
Dreaming that soon,
A lover she'll meet.

A bride soon at twenty ...
My heart gives a leap;
Remembering the vows
That I promised to keep.

At twenty-five,
I have young of my own,
Who need me to build
A secure and happy home.

A woman of thirty,
My young now grow fast,
Bound together with ties
That forever should last.

At forty, my young ones
Have grown up and gone;
But my man is beside me
To see I don't mourn.

At fifty, once more ...
Babies play 'round my knees;
Again we know children,
My loved ones and me.

Dark days are upon me,
My husband is dead ...
I look at the future,
I shudder with dread;
For my young are all rearing,
Young of their own,
And I think of the years
And the love I have known.

I am an old woman now,
Nature is cruel,
eTis her jest to make old age
Look like a fool.

The body, it crumbles,
Grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone
Where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass,
A young girl still dwells,
And now and again
My battered heart swells.

I remember the joys,
I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living
Life over again.

I think of the years ...
All too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact
That nothing can last.

So open your eyes nurses,
Open and see ...
Not a "Crabbit Old Woman,"
Look closer ... see "Me."