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 SAN DIEGO–Following are three songs selected by Hal's daughter, Harriet, on the theme of ... To hear Hal's songs previously posted, please click here.
#214 C - Nostalgia
#288 - Where's Grace?
#137 - Aging
#214C, Nostalgia
Oh, how I do long for the good old days--
For I'm a nostalgia buff.
I'll not be the last
To live in the past.
Today's life is not good enough.
Oh, how I do long for the good old days--
When grandaddy plowed with a mule,
And children did chores,
And worked out-of-doors,
And walked twenty miles to their school.
Oh, how I do long for the good old days--
The days of the bards and the sages,
With castle and knight
And witchcraft to fight
Great plagues of the famed Middle Ages.
Oh, how I do long for the good old days--
The days of the grand Roman rule,
When athletes with sword,
Beloved and adored,
Went boldly to death in a duel.
Oh, how I do long for the good old days--
And yet to a certain degree,
I'll have to admit:
Nostalgia is it--
But not what it once used to be,
But not what it once used to be.
Oh, how I do long for the good old days--
When people had time on their own.
For hours they'd sit,
Just thinking a bit,
Alone on an open-air throne.
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#288, Where's Grace
Can anyone tell us what’s happened to Grace?
She’s not to be found any time, any place.
She used to take part in our daily routines
By helping us value what thoughtfulness means.
With Grace people acted in courteous ways,
Enjoying the role that civility plays.
She smoothed out rough edges that cause human strife.
With Grace-ful behavior she sweetened our life.
But now without Grace we all never say “please.”
We play boom-box music at loudest degrees.
We never hold doors for old ladies to pass.
We’re all now quite simply a pain in the. . .neck.
Amazing Grace.
Who’ll take her place?
Can anyone tell us what’s happened to Grace?
She’s not to be found any time, any place.
My biggest gripe with aging is it doesn't strike at once,
But with sporadic devilry attacks on many fronts;
And only when the months commence to count themselves as years
Does youth begin to realize what ev'ry elder fears:
A little pain or breathlessness with no apparent cause--
The need when one is doing work to take a longer pause--
A blurring of the tiny print that one has always read--
And sometimes falling dead asleep while making love in bed.
I would not hide from agedness nor feel that I was cursed,
If only aging came at once with nothing aging first.
The matter isn't personal. My systems all are "go,"
Except that at the counting down the count is sometimes slow.
A little pain or breathlessness with no apparent cause--
The need when one is doing work to take a longer pause--
A blurring of the tiny print that one has always read--
And sometimes falling dead asleep while making love in bed.
If only aging waited 'til we'd reach a certain year,
We all could live in youthfulness without a pain or fear.
The only question we would ask is what that year should be;
And I don't mind suggesting now: one hundred twenty-three.
A little pain or breathlessness with no apparent cause--
The need when one is doing work to take a longer pause--
A blurring of the tiny print that one has always read--
And sometimes falling dead asleep while making love in bed.
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