1 Topic by TIGLJK (edited by TIGLJK 2026-09-17 00:00:21)

  • TIGLJK
  • Honoured Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-05-11
  • Posts: 3,531

Topic: Golden Glass

This is based on the book Charlie Smith's Girl.  Bear with me...... it's a wild story ! 

About 1991 (many years ago) I was in the dentist office waiting  for the call from the dental hygienist  While waiting - I picked up a Time Magazine and began skimming and reading - when all of a sudden I saw the words " Worcester NY"  and it said " book banned" .  So i started reading about this Author Helen Bevington (Smith)  who had just released another book called The World and the Bo Tree - but the most interesting part was the description of a previous book called Charlie Smith's Girl.   A large part of it was about her life in Worcester (my hometown )  and her Minister father who had an affair with a women that forced him out of the church in Pennsylvania and forced him to come to Worcester. He then had a second affair with a Worcester woman ( and that's why the book was banned in our local library! )  Her mom divorced him - and led a single mom life.  There was a door on their apartment(after moving out of the Methodist parsonage) that had a big clear window surrounding by squares of stained glass.  In the book, Helen said whenever things were bad, she would go to the door and look through the golden piece of stained glass because it helped her get through the things that were bothering her.       So fast forward -   I was teaching a local history class at my school in Worcester and one of my students asked me why I never got a hold of her.   So I called her - she was teaching at Duke University - professor emeritus!

We had many conversations. she sent me an autographed copy of the book and several follow up letters. She was so nice !!    Sadly, after a couple years of correspondence - her daughter sent me a letter saying Helen had passed.  So last week  I was going through a closet and found the book. It got me thinking about her.  So I started writing this song - and finished it today.  this is a link to what someone else wrote about the book  https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=1803      an amazing story     


This is the link to the song. https://on.soundcloud.com/GZZSOyz6MHxYm7F8e3    hope you like it. smile

The price of anything, is the amount of life you exchange for it.   - H.D. Thoreau
Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but what your mind can imagine.
Make your life count, and the world will be a better place because you tried.
"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except only the the best." - Henry Van Dyke