Bye Bye Miss American Pie

And we’re back! Day 32!

So many songs conjure up stories for me. I could come to Leigh Anne’s Music Festival many times, but I come today with these songs that reminded me of small stories of my childhood.

“Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie” by Don McLean, 1971

When I was in eighth grade, Ms. Andrews was my English teacher. We were reading the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The story of Charlie Gordon pulled out feelings of empathy and sadness that I had never experienced before. At the same time we were reading the book, the song “Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie” by Don McLean came out. For no lyric or rational reason, but just a matter of the heart, when I heard the song, I thought of Charlie Gordon. I still do to this day; the song brings me back to eighth grade and this important novel we read.

This song also inspired the poem in my chapter in Words That Mend: The Transformative Power of Writing Poetry for Teachers, Students, and Community Wellbeing. (The link goes to a free download of the book.)

“The Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel, 1964

I have never been much of a consumer of music, but when I was a freshman in high school, I received the album The Sounds of Silence for my birthday. It wasn’t a new album, but it was still popular, if I remember correctly. I had a record player in my room, and I listened to this album continually. Other the years, I did buy a few singles (45s) of other artists, but I never bought or received another album.

“America, the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates, 1895

Every day in third grade, Mrs. Gaffney’s class said the pledge of allegiance and then we were all trained to break into singing the first stanza and chorus of “America, the Beautiful.” It’s a familiar song for people my age. I recently had an experience at a rally on President’s Day (Not My President Protest) in Palm Springs. One of the first things we did was sing “America the Beautiful.” I was touched and a little choked up singing that song with this unlikely group. Patriot protestors taking the flag back.

Patriotism
shines through warriors under
Mother’s spacious sky