1950's

The decade of the 1950's, some sixty years ago, was certainly an eventful time in my life. I graduated from Pottstown High School, spent a year in center county at Penn State University, plied my physicality on the gridiron, married and fathered two daughters, returned to PSU for another semester, and interspersed throughout this entire decade, I worked for the same man I began mowing grass for in the late 1940's while just a young schoolboy. 

Henry Fox, while employed by Doehler Jarvis, began mowing lawns in the late 1940's as a summer's second occupation. He went into his own business in the 1950's and built a formidable landscape nursery company.  Fox Landscaping became a frequent recipient of highway restoration contracts which were awarded directly through the state. Being state contracts the wages paid to the employees doing the physical work were paid at state regulated prevailing rates. The rate for landscape laborer was $2.10 an hour.

This amount of $2.10 per hour paid to the very lowest level employees working on state jobs 50/60 years ago seems awfully low by today's standards. But, when all costs of living adjustments could be calculated and applied up to today, this hourly rate would probably be well over $20.00 an hour. 

With this in mind, what in the world is so great with a rise in the minimum wage to $10.10. I was able to start a family, go to school, and buy a drivable car while receiving the minimal wage 60 years ago but I couldn't do it today at $7.25 an hour or even $10.10. 

Our federal congress is today over half populated by millionaires and those, not so affluent, are still damned well off. This Congress, under the cloud of their personal affluence, seem bent on bringing back the legitimacy of an aristocracy complete with a hoard of serfs who resemble us, the 99%R's. 

These legislators have never had to deal with poverty as an aspect of daily life. They've rarely had to pay on a student loan, or seen their homestead worth less then the mortgage written on it. The glasses legislators look through these days are flowery rose colored devoid of viewing the World as it lays before them. Rather, they worship at the well of the few who are spoiling all the other wells around long available to the masses which kept them from dying of thirst.

When not poisoning wells these range bosses are discrediting the very jobs they were voted in to do and, disgustingly so, are denigrating the role of women as our mother's, our daughter's, as our care giver's, and as the majority, by gender, of American citizens. When the courage of women manifests itself in a loud chorus  of their members shouting their worth from the mountain tops, then they will vote to throw the bums out, the bums who wish to keep females under heal?

Ronald C. Downie

Inconsequential  

Contrary to a popular notion, that
A person like me is indispensable,
I'd like to put this thought to rest.

My willingness to write is quite commendable ;
My ability to write may be truly questionable ;
But, on and on I go, writing words of valued trash.

I question authority without due cause,
I refuse to listen to reasonable chatter.
I am an icon of an ineffective communicator.

Those like me are seen daily on Facebook,
Always posting their image, good or better,
They feel images are better than new ideas.

Impervious to reticule, their facial expression
Shows they're the real deal, truth exudes.
All's alive, not from information, but by photos. 

Narcissistic are our own Daphne's and Adonis' 
Capturing their faces, not in pools, but on line.
Angelic are spirits of the super self important.

There I go again - King of the Hill - that's me,
Over stuffed, overly old, too unimportantly brash.
Don't listen to me, I am really inconsequential.

Ronald C. Downie

Long Strides

Born into this World from an overt act
Each our fellow beings resulted from.

None of us can reach back and undue it,
So the dye's cast, the future's our soul's path.

Gestation, those 266 days of formulation, 
Is only the rehearsal for life's play.

It's a child's parents through their union 
Which transcends generations, leaps forward

Quickly, as the child gains raw knowledge
And takes positive steps in their own world.

They prepare for their own future linage
Drawn from family, spirited through time.

History's long strides can be best measured 
Not by duration of gestation, nor 

By abundance of productive unions, 
But thru the result of the best coupling.

Then a spirited offspring, receptor 
Of knowledge, an ambassador of life

Enters the World to make a mark on life,
Indelible as a tattoo, it's not.

Ronald C. Downie

Hemispheres 

I am a planet, just as you are;
I am opposing hemispheres, as you.

I was started from a seed fertilized,
As was a stalk of grass, or oak tree.

Or whale swimming, not in prairie seas,
Or elephant amerced, not in ocean fields.

Each to its own, in its place, so it is fixed.
Planets are calved from a fertilized seed.

Me, anchored earth through Mom's umbilical cord,
Me, sprouting like a blade of grass, I reach for light.

Hemispheres reaching in opposite directions;
Half, in the air ; other half, rooting for sustenance.

Enfolded am I in the universe I've entered,
As each life form born, enters a universe.

We all are reluctantly building our own futures
Thinking independently but acting in concert

With our animal and vegetative counterparts,
Mingling as we must, to build grand empires.

Empires, though, are just constructs of man
Succumbing to his wayward ego, regretfully.

The universe we all inhabit is so demanding
Incorporating all life forms in the chain of food.

Eating, being eaten, growing - not knowing if we
Are to be eaten - a trip each life form travels.

Our consciousness forgets we're on this continuum,
It's hard for humans to understand their own frailty,

Since life's battle is to be the,"King Of The Hill",
Man can't fathom the free fall from top to bottom.

Death returns all life forms to their basic elements
Reducing the whole of each into their components.

These released components are now free to link up
And form new life forms completing the grand cycle.

Whether flying or swimming, walking or anchored,
Simple or complex, planets, small or huge, are calved.

Life never stops evolving, calving is commonplace,
All around us life never stops pounding the drum.

Into the eternity of time and space we meander
On trails blazed or unmarked, feeling our way.

Ronald C. Downie 

 

Martin Luther King- Celebrating His Birthday

From the bayous to the mountain tops Doctor King promoted non violence while urging his followers to march in unity which expressed their discontent of having to live their lives as second class citizens.

Martin Luther King followed Gandhi and Mandela in moving the World toward "A More Perfect Planet".


 *    A Special Day At Second Baptist    *

A tall steeple spires Pottstown's highest hill
Above strong walls of matched field stone.
Within, tone pitched voices heavenly trill
At Second Baptist, their soul's spiritual home.

   Are there shadows dark enough to hide
   A light within shining from deep inside ?

Below, in the valley of the Schuylkill River
Arched trees gracefully mark her gentle banks.
Finally, she's clean, clear flows this life giver.
Man's new conscience commands our thanks.

    I ask. Are there shadows dark enough to hide
    A light within beaming bright from deep inside ?

Up there, somewhere on mountains high
The heavens open, down strong rains pour
Streams, creeks, and rivers from the sky.
Water flows for all, for rich and the poor.

     Say, are there shadows dark enough to hide
     A light within glowing bright from deep inside ?

Not all rivers flow deep from recent rain water.
Thought streams and brooks of want gather
Carrying dreams for humanity's peaceful order.
We are immersed in life regardless the weather.

     Who could light dark shadows which tries to hide
     An illuminating message from the heart inside ?

King ! Why King could ! Yes, Dr. Martin could :
Spark a flint, light a candle, could ignite a flame,
Have a dream, a dream that inspired all who would 
Listen. Spread light, sing out, Proclaim ! Proclaim !
       
      There are no shadows dark enough to hide
      A bright light radiating out from deep inside.
      Proclaim ! There are no shadows so dark to hide
      A spiritual blessing sent from the Lord On High.

Ronald C .Downie.

Sonnet 2

 Only Knowledge

When looking into the mirror of hope,
I find far too many so deep in despair 
Who willingly slough off a need to cope,
Leaving them vulnerable, requiring care :

Will it be some epiphany that grabs the scene ;
Without something like that, what's then ?
Do spots disappear, stripes fade, does fat lien ?
From nagging disappointments, hope comes when ?

Realizing a personal attitude becomes the key
To unlocking the potential energy pent up now
Awaiting release. Learning wisdom's wise old plea,
"Only knowledge sets Man free", showing him how.

History records, rewrites episodes sad or proud 
While shunning facts, destiny floats on as a cloud.

Ronald C. Downie

Sonnet 20

Spiten Spittle

When readership expresses to little
Interest in my subject as written,
That my mouth drys up with wasted spittle,
I take some water, gargle, start spiten :

Then, access the topic again, rethink
My propositions, rewrite if I must.
It is the public who wishes to drink
From my word fountain; needed is their trust :

And then, when the steel of my conviction
Gains temper, hardens, and affirms my thought,
I write for self without old restriction
Between me and my reader, I am caught.

The World exists in spite of my being,   
I write for myself to find some meaning.

Ronald C. Downie