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I started toying with this story a little more than two years ago. Chapter 4 is where I really started to hit my stride telling the story (and, by extension, finding places to insert Chapin references).
The date-related Easter eggs:
November 16: "the Cat's In the Cradle kid," Harry's son Josh, was born on November 15, 1972. However, in 1870, November 15 fell on a Sunday, and I needed that plot development to happen on a business day, so it is pushed forward one day.
January 8: the final (or at least one of the final) non-bootleg recordings of a Harry Chapin concert coincided with a celebration of his 2,000th concert that took place over three days at The Bottom Line in New York City. The first of the three shows was on January 8, 1981.
July 16: the date of Martin Tanner's confessional letter is the date of Harry's death in 1981.
Elements of both funeral scenes are drawn from "Corey's Coming." There are two versions of the song: the original version from the "On the Road To Kingdom Come" album, and the longer version on the "Legends of the Lost and Found" album, which many fans (me among them) deem the canonical version.
Either one tells why "when he finally looked up, Harry saw that he was not alone" and provides the source of the parson's eulogy for Martin: "We need not grieve for this man, for we know that God cares." Incidentally, Ella walking into the parlor "with a shawl around her head" when Harry comes calling to escort her to the town festival in Chapter 2 also comes from "Corey's Coming."
Harry feeling "as if he had traveled nearly a thousand miles only to find himself standing exactly where he had begun" is a callout to one of my favorite lyrics that Harry Chapin ever wrote: You can travel on 10,000 miles and still stay where you are from the song "W.O.L.D." which also appears on the "Short Stories" album.
What I really want to pause for, though, is the name of Martin's attorney.
The song 30,000 Pounds of Bananas was a favorite of Harry’s fans... and was the bane of his band’s existence when performed in concert; Steve once said "I try to stay as uninvolved as possible with this song at all times."
In 1965, Harry was riding a bus between New York City and Ithaca, NY. As it passed through Scranton, Pennsylvania, a passenger regaled Harry with the tale of a recent truck accident. The truck, en route to a grocery store, had jackknifed, spilling fifteen tons of produce all over Moosic Street. Later on, Harry was watching the evening news and heard the dispassionate recitation of the day’s casualty figures from Vietnam. He thought of that conversation on the bus, and remembered the man laughing uproariously over all that spilled cargo, the cars that were wrecked, the property that was damaged... but mostly the bananas.
Yet the laughter and the jokes overlooked one simple fact: a man had died. A human being, flesh and blood, had a wife and family waiting at home... and they never saw him walk through the door again. Not terribly unlike those daily casualty reports. It was often hard for people watching those news reports to remember that those staggering numbers represented real people. A mother who had a folded flag rather than a son. A young woman who had dreamt of her high-school sweetheart coming home and beginning a life with her, left only with a class ring. A boy whose big brother would never throw him another football. Much like 2020, when we listened to the daily COVID numbers, but perhaps never really thought about the woman watching her husband struggle to breathe, or the son who had to tell the doctors to turn off the machines keeping his mother alive.
On March 18, 1965, a man went to work with no thought of becoming a hero. Yet he did. Although he died in that accident, he was the only fatality. When his truck’s brakes failed and he rolled into Scranton out of control, he stood on the truck’s running board and screamed at everyone in his path, warning them out of the way. And when he saw the approaching gas station, he steered the truck away from it, which cost the driver his life but likely prevented a mass casualty incident.
The truck driver's name was Eugene Sesky. I realize his family is not happy about the immortality that “30,000 Pounds of Bananas” brought him, and theirs is a fair criticism. Perhaps he does deserve to be memorialized as more than an opportunity for people to sit on the edge of their seats, tapping their feet and waiting for their cue to scream, “Harry, it sucks!” I can only offer a different tribute, making him the namesake of an advocate, a protector, and a man of compassion - qualities the real man demonstrated with his final act.
Rest well, Mr. Sesky.
Those of you who are Harry's fans know perfectly well where a sizable portion of Chapter 3 (and, indeed, the setting of Dayton itself) came from.
For those of you who are not... Harry once said that "Mr. Tanner" came from a review he read in the New York Times that was "unbelievably cruel, but I imagined what came before and what came after and came up with the story."
The "real" Mr. Tanner is still alive, and is named Martin Tubridy. He gave two performances at The Town Hall in New York City, one in 1971 and one in 1972. These were the reviews:
Tubridy Makes Song Debut
Tubridy Performs in Second Recital
It's not altogether clear which one prompted the song, as the "Mr. Martin Tanner, baritone..." bridge appears to borrow from both of them.
It happens that Martin Tubridy didn't even learn of the song's existence until more than 30 years later. The song's chorus includes "O Holy Night" being sung in countermelody, and when Harry's brother Steve performed a concert in Connecticut in 2016, the man himself appeared and sang that part.
Although I admit to still being partial to that duty being performed by Harry's bassist and backup singer, Big John Wallace.
Those of you who have been following me for the past several years know that I spend part of the run-up to Christmas working with our local mall's Santa. I have been on vacation this week, but this elf reports for duty once again in the morning.
Chapter 4 will be posted on Saturday, and may my U.S. readers have a delightful Thanksgiving.
I refer you to my blog entry from earlier this week. "Dwight" is named after Medal of Honor recipient Dwight Hal Johnson, the subject of Harry's 1975 song, "Bummer." Links to the song are there.
Making a repeat appearance from Chapter 1 are:
"The Day They Closed the Factory Down" with regard to James Crane's fate, and the family being bought off in exchange for not making a fuss. Incidentally, the whole thing about factory management making moves on the widows has historical precedent as well.
"I Wanna Learn a Love Song" with regard to Harry's and Ella's private time during their courtship.
Chapter 3 coming on Saturday the 22nd. Have a good week, everyone.
DFLR
... is the final resting place of Sgt. Dwight Hal Johnson, the subject of the song "Bummer" on Harry's 1975 album, "Portrait Gallery." Although the song takes several liberties, particularly with respect to his early life, the message of the song is wholly accurate: that Sgt. Johnson went overseas, served his country, and came home to an America that heard the phrase "black Medal of Honor recipient" and cared more about the first word than the other four.
He was shot to death by a convenience store clerk. Most sources report that he was shot while trying to rob the store. But a handful of sources suggest that he was buying diapers, and the clerk shot him after mistaking him for a different black man who had robbed the store earlier in the evening. Detroit police didn't do a whole lot of investigation into the matter. It was easy enough to decide that he must have had malicious intent - after all, why else would a man with military training be carrying a gun while walking around inner-city Detroit at 11:30 at night?
A character who is Sgt. Johnson's namesake will appear in the next chapter of "Mail Order Annie." In the meantime, set aside about ten minutes and click below. And on this Veterans Day, remember - and pay tribute to - one who deserved a better ending than he received.
"Bummer" by Harry Chapin (with lyrics)
Sgt. Johnson's Medal of Honor citation
Sgt. Johnson's final resting place
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