Larry Fagin (31 July 1937-27 May 2017): Occasional Poem, 1966
Larry
Fagin and I met and became friends in 1966, when Larry was living in the UK
as an "attached dependent" near a US air base where his father, an officer
in USAF HQ South Ruislip, Bucks., was stationed. At the time I was
living in Brightlingsea, a small fishing village on the North Sea. I was
editing magazines in those days, and Larry had seen those magazines. He
had passed through the shadow of the San Francisco poetry scene,
dominated at the time by the dire influence of Jack Spicer. The Spicer
tone of ironic bitterness was a Thing. At the same time the New York
School was also a Thing, and Larry was just discovering it. The illusion
of nonstop madcap fun in the Ted 'n Ron downtown NY scene attracted him
mightily -- I suspected it was working for him as a kind of homeopathic
cure / exorcism. In any case he quickly bought the program, swallowed
hook, line, and was sinking deeply into the period style, from far away,
in a situation that could hardly have been more unlike the Lower East
Side, when we began to meet up in London.
His day trips were brief and specific. A bit of poetry fun. Train back to the base, after, à la Cinderella. Life at the base, as I came to understand, was quite comfortable for the American military personnel and their dependents, everything laid on, all the comforts of home, but considerably cheaper. Larry was playing a lot of spinner baseball, eating a lot of Hostess Twinkies, and imagining himself in the midst of a New York City he knew nothing about. His college credits, such as they were, had been earned through US military extension courses from the University of Maryland. Like many other people I knew in those years who were children of the military, he had moved from place to place, base to base, so that his true home was not any particular place in the US, but the military.
His one memorable poem of these years was "Occasional Poem", a fantasy account of a trip with Tom Clark to Greenwich. The trip never happened. Larry was just namedropping, there. "Tom Clark" was obviously not as good as "Ted and Ron", but it was as close as Larry was able to get, at that juncture. I found the joke pretty funny. Everything he said he did, in that poem, I'm pretty sure he did do, in some fashion, and I did not.
This account by a local English lass offers an interesting mirroring from "the other side":
"I grew up just down the rd from the Air base and later my
Secondary school was built opposite the base Where Currys
Electronics store etc now stand. Queensmead School is
where the bus stop was, where we would wait for the GI's
to go to their rented homes away from home in Harrow
etc. We would say cheekily to The Americans, 'Got any
gum chum'. As our parents thought this was scrounging, we
could not go home chewing our ill gotten gum.
"As pre teen kids we would take our 'Guy Fawkes' effigy to the bus stop to catch the GI's going home. 'Penny for the Guy'. We'd ask/beg (depending how a person looked at the tradition) for money. The week leading up to Nov 5th, we would tell the GI's, the effigy would be burnt on a bonfire we'd build. Then we would give a brief history of Guy Fawkes and the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Our sister in a sack, dressed up as Guy Fawkes, being pushed about in a child's push chair, decided to stand up. The American lady who had been listening intently, yelled and jumped backwards. My poor sister being uncomfortable had to stand up to stretch out her long legs and had no idea she would frighten the lady so much. Janice was around 7 yrs old. I think Janice jumped with just as much fright, when the woman yelled out.
"As pre teen kids we would take our 'Guy Fawkes' effigy to the bus stop to catch the GI's going home. 'Penny for the Guy'. We'd ask/beg (depending how a person looked at the tradition) for money. The week leading up to Nov 5th, we would tell the GI's, the effigy would be burnt on a bonfire we'd build. Then we would give a brief history of Guy Fawkes and the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Our sister in a sack, dressed up as Guy Fawkes, being pushed about in a child's push chair, decided to stand up. The American lady who had been listening intently, yelled and jumped backwards. My poor sister being uncomfortable had to stand up to stretch out her long legs and had no idea she would frighten the lady so much. Janice was around 7 yrs old. I think Janice jumped with just as much fright, when the woman yelled out.
"Somewhere around the back area of the old site where the
base stood, there is a rd leading to the local council
waste/recycle dump. I went there with my dad in 2000 to
dump stuff he was clearing out from his stables. I know that
there was a Baseball pitch somewhere back there through the
tunnel, under the central train line that went to and from
London. Steam trains used to travel that route also. As kids
we would squash pennies on the line as the train passed over
them. We would Bird nest also in that area (look not touch) we
would have to run every so often when the Air police saw us
back there."
There were, in the neighborhood,
entertainments galore available to overseas military and their
families. Larry could have stopped closer to base, skipped the New York School, and enjoyed great (?) shows like
this one.
Brenda Larenty, Low Wire, Jimmy Chipperfields Circus 1979, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK: photo by SJM_1974, April 1979
Brenda Larenty, Aerialist, Jimmy Chipperfields Circus 1979, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK: photo by SJM_1974, April 1979
David Hibling, Chimps Jimmy Chipperfields Circus 1979, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK: photo by SJM_1974, April 1979
Rochelle Flyers, Flying Trapeze, Jimmy Chipperfields Circus 1979, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK: photo by SJM_1974, April 1979
Rochelle Flyers, Flying Trapeze, Jimmy Chipperfields Circus 1979, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK: photo by SJM_1974, April 1979
Duo Roche, Aerial Cradle, Jimmy Chipperfields Circus 1979, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK: photo by SJM_1974, April 1979
@realDonaldTrump
and First Lady Melania Trump greet U.S. troops at Naval Air Station
Sigonella before departing Sicily for Washington DC.: image via Stephen Crowley @Stcrow, 27 May 2017
@realDonaldTrump
and First Lady Melania Trump greet U.S. troops at Naval Air Station
Sigonella before departing Sicily for Washington DC.: image via Stephen Crowley @Stcrow, 27 May 2017
DSC_0987 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
DSC_0987 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
DSC_0987 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
Farough. The only woman that dressed up! [Paradise, California]: photo by Gino, 16 October 2010
I fell in love at Safeway, right here in my home town, Paradise.
Went in yesterday early to pick up some
bacon jerky and beer chips.
Grabbed a cart and pushed it to the back of the store, made a
right, made another right. And there she was, the beauty!
“Excuse me please,” I said, shoving her aside on my way down the aisle.
“No worries," she said, moving out of my way.
Oh, these crazy meth lab girls!!
How they love it when you push 'em around!
This one was no spring chicken.
Then again, my own knee pads are showing signs of wear.
I take what I can get.
And could I get some of this?
Spotted a flash of cleavage, oh! didn't I!
Thank dog I was a wearing my MAGA hat.
These meth lab chicks dig the color red like crazy.
I push 'em aside, no problem.
Faint laughter came to my ears from the next aisle over.
People maneuvering their carts had stopped.
Something about love in Paradise always strikes people up this way as funny.
Well, I guess we are!
Funny, I mean.
But hey, you knew that already!
Oh, my!
DSC_0970 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
DSC_0970 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
DSC_0970 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
Mike Smith [Paradise, California]: photo by Gino, 16 October 2010
DSC_0990 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
DSC_0990 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
DSC_0990 [Paradise, California]: photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, 16 February 2017
Jemma and Roy [Paradise, California]: photo by Gino, 16 October 2010
3 comments:
Fantasy comes true, right here, right now: "He doesn't like Muslims, because they're like... criminals."
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