Good Night

I'm sitting here in my big, comfortable, manly , black leather poppa chair in my living room, and I've just read what might be the best Louie Louie Generation poem ever written. Proud Podcast Participant John Lancellotti sent it to me. He wrote it a long time ago. It's called, HANGIN OUT. And It goes like this: We did it in the dark street as daytime turned to night. You'd find us hangin' out benearth a corner light. Or maybe down the block, we'd gather in a group to spend the evening laughing, noisy shadows on a stoop. We dared the night to harm us-- with danger always near -- but hangin' with the crowd was a room we closed to fear. For boys it was a passage that led to being men. We learned that life was struggle, the gutter's great Amen... For girls it was a time to test a woman's ways, to learn about the magic that turned their men to slaves. That's how the city brewed us in the kettle of the street, where hangin' out with friends made being kids so sweet.