THE YEARS OF MARTHA
If I was putting your long life to rhyme
I’d have to go back a long, long time
In the year of our Lord, nineteen thirty
Martha came into the world looking quite
pretty.
In the Village of Ash in the mountains
of smoke
You were born to Carla and Athol, the
bloke
It was an important year, not just for
Grant house
For it also birthed Mickey, Mickey the
Mouse
And a new planet, Pluto, was named as
such
Not the dog of Disney, that would be a
bit much.
Now Betty the Boop also made her premier
The depression had started, but the
previous year.
In the year thirty-one the depression
raged on
And finally to jail went Al the Capone
The production of Model A came to an end
But only just started little Annie the Orphan
In thirty-two the famous flier’s son is
‘nabbed
And Jack Benny radio made people laugh
And Buck Rogers airs for the very first
time
While the FBI opens to start solving
crime.
The next year in Cali birthed a bridge
gold as the sun
And a soon to be despot crowned
Chancellor of Hun
The Lone Ranger and Tonto gave episodic
relief
And King Kong was big beyond our belief.
In year thirty-three evil things began
Gestapo and book burnings, quite insane.
Albert the Einstein flees to the States
For the Hun under Hitler, Jews now hate
Bonnie and Clyde rampage in thirty-four
But Donald the Duck we come to adore
Dust in a bowl swirls and storms in
Midwest
But Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody is
the best.
Thirty-five brought Fibber, and Molly
his babe
Another Babe played last on the field of
the Braves
Social Security enacted for when we
retire
Monopoly birthed for when distraction’s
desired.
Snow White and Dick Tracy did their best
to distract
But The Hun’s evil still grew becoming
bitter fact
And his hated flag was now flown with
arms askew
And the Dust Bowl heated up as tensions
grew.
In thirty-six the magazine called Life
was set to begin
And in Russia a Marxist died named
Vladimir Lenin
In Berlin Olympics were ironically held
And Jesse Owens into history there
sailed.
In the year thirty-seven Look Magazine
was born
And into highest office Franklin was
sworn
The Hindenburg exploded and was gone in a flash
And Martha was
seven in the Village of Ash.
In
thirty-eight we came to love Wizard of Oz
But Orson’s
War of the World gave us pause
An ocean liner
named for a queen set sail
But evil in
Europe made all else seem pale.
The comic book
Batman was born in thirty-nine
The most
topical superhero of any other time
But he
couldn’t stop Hitler or settle that score
And Hun’s
attack on Poland started world war.
Forty brought
Sinatra and many bravos
And Pinocchio
with his exceptionally long nose
Churchill gave
his speech of the Finest Hour
But Japan’s
Pearl attack turned the nation glower.
The
Chattanooga Choo Choo brought in the next year
Still Germans
invaded and made people fear
Cheerios
filled bowls and Coulee Dam made the juice
And the war of
the world tightened its noose.
A future man
of the cloth, yet still a teen
Signed up for
the war to go places he’d not seen
So Clyde the
Marine on a ship called Bataan
Sailed away as
a boy but came home as a man.
In forty-two
Anne Frank begins to take note
As she and her
family hid and prayed as she wrote
This most
horrid of years human lives were transported
To an outrage
of death, humanity was distorted.
The Great
Depression left the scene in year forty-three
And Tom
Jefferson’s Memorial opened by Tidal sea
“Oklahoma”
opened and Miller was “In the Mood”
But the mood
of the world remained quite subdued.
In forty-four D-Day
began as Paris was set free
Little Anne is
captured, Miller lost at sea
Fourth time
reelected, Franklin counted the cost
After a battle
that bulged where thousands were lost.
In May
forty-five both fronts came to an end
The evil Hun
dead, Little Boy and Fat Man sent
The great
Roosevelt died, peace not seen
And Clyde
returned home, no more a Marine.
Skipping
forward in time Martha and Clyde did meet
Looking over
her John, their heart’s skipped a beat
It didn’t take
long before the two became one
Then on to
Texas cowtown, their lives had begun
Two baby girls
were born and in Ohio a son
But before
leaving Texas, Clyde’s graduation.
Then new
pastor plus three left for the buckeye
In Kentucky
and NC their family would multiply.
The 60’s were
turbulent with a war that was cold
A president
was killed, the Beatles went gold
Free lovin
hippies meanwhile kept the beat
And the
conflict in Nam continued to heat.
In the late
60’s we lived North of the Mason-Dixon
Close to the
city with a white house later to be Nixon’s.
With monuments, museums, and race riots
abounding
We moved as
Woodstock in the Catskills was sounding.
The Smith’s
moved to OK by way of DC
For the
seventies Norman is where they’d be.
A president
ousted, and a King had a dream
The kids all
grew up, overnight it would seem.
Bell-bottoms,
hip-huggers and mood rings were worn
Some marriages
happened and grandkids were born
Décor in the
home was orange, avocado and shag
Two memorable
trips to jolly old England you had.
The eighties
brought a significant change
The plains
left behind, for the beach you’d all exchange
North Carolina
was home and where it all had begun
And back to
that State they all moved one by one.
In the
nineties disasters and tragedies abounded
Earthquakes,
Diana’s death, and a Gulf War sounded.
Grandkids and
great-ones brought joy to your heart
And a
hurricane named Floyd tore Wrightsville apart.
The nineties ended and the century turned
Life
continued, good time, joys and concerns.
The twin
towers fell and another war came
Your love went
to heaven which brought you much pain.
In this life
we take the bad with the good
It’s all part
of life even if not understood
God holds us
all in the palm of his hand
And when this
life is over before Him we’ll stand.
The years of your
life continue to go on
This dream of
a life you once wished upon
Where once in
your family there were only the seven
Thirty-five
numbers your love in twenty eleven.
-to be continued….
(For Mom’s 80th birthday
by Cheryl Smith Banks – 2011)
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