Page 13 - PGA Community News - November '22

November 2022 November 2022 PGA C.A.N.!, Page 13
Let Me Tell You…

What A Wonderful World

By Marie Pinschmidt Our common pencils are hexagonal to keep them from My husband and I lived in New Orleans during the late
We celebrate another rolling off the table, and they are yellow because the best ‘60s and ‘70s, and a favorite activity was attending jazz
Thanksgiving, an American graphite came from China (not surprising) and yellow is performances at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter.
tradition, and we do it in traditionally associated with Chinese royalty. A single It was also fun to see Al Hirt (another famous musician)
a big way. We gather, we pencil can draw a line 35 miles long or write around 45,000 walking along the lakefront near our home or see Pete
travel, we cook and feast, words. If you make a mistake, thanks to Hymen Lipman, Fountain (another neighbor) and his saxophone leading
and we celebrate. Hopefully, you probably have an eraser handy ─ a wonderful thing. the parade at a jazz funeral on the streets of New Orleans.
our minds will also be on Let me tell you another wonderful thing ─ the birth Pete’s rendition of Miss Lucy still makes me swoon when
our country and the many of Louis Armstrong in 1901. If you were not alive during I play his CDs.
trials and tribulations it that era, I’m sure you are familiar with the name. As a What kind of world would we have without the lowly
has overcome and has yet boy singing for pennies on the streets of New Orleans, he pencil and all it hath wrought, or music to soothe and uplift
to overcome. Our lives are earned his nickname, Dippermouth, by scooping up the us when all else fails?
made up of events that deserve recognition and celebration, coins and stuffing them in his mouth so the bigger boys Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all and remember it’s a
but what of the people and things we take for granted. I was couldn’t steal them. Later, his effusive style of playing, in wonderful world because we are alive.
often told that great things often come in small packages. particular the way he blew high C on his trumpet, earned Marie Pinschmidt
A pencil, in its various forms, is a small thing but plays him the name Satchelmouth, later shortened to Satchmo. Phone (561) 624-9003, cell (561) 510-5006
a huge invaluable part in our lives, especially to visual Armstrong was born in Storyville, the poorest
artists and writers. neighborhood of New Orleans. He worked for a Russian
Hyman Lipman of Philadelphia, in 1858, patented the Jewish family delivering coal to the rooms of prostitutes.
first pencil to have an attached eraser. The eraser-tipped The family was kind to him and helped him buy a tin Wanted
pencil remains something of an American phenomenon; trumpet. Because of their kindness he wore a Star of
many European pencils are still without erasers. The David pendant for the rest of his life. At 11, he was sent
humble pencil has a long and storied history, going back to a boy’s home where he was given a cornet and taught People are vandalizing
to the Roman stylus, which was sometimes made of lead, to read music. He said, “Me and music got married in that
and why we still call the business end of the pencil the home.” They stayed “married” for the rest of his life. golf courses after play
“lead,” even though it’s been made of nontoxic graphite As a teenager, he honed his skills by playing for dances, hours. Sand traps,
since 1564. funeral marches, and on riverboats. He was welcomed to greens and fairways
Pencils were first mass produced in Nuremberg, Chicago in 1924, when scores of jazz and blues musicians
Germany, in 1662, and the Industrial Revolution of the began an exodus from the South, forever changing the are being damaged.
19th century allowed the manufacturers to flourish. Before landscape of music. He is largely responsible for the shift If you see anyone on
he became known for “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience,” in jazz from collective improvisation to solo performance. courses after hours,
Henry David Thoreau and his father were famous for From 1925 to 1928, he and his band, “Louis Armstrong and
manufacturing the hardest, blackest pencils in the United The Hot Five,” made over 60 records. Satchmo displaced please call POA
States. Thomas Edison was fond of short pencils that fit The Beatles record in 1964 when his rendition of Hello Security at 627-1600
neatly into a vest pocket, readily accessible for the jotting Dolly, knocked them off the No. 1 spot on the Billboard or Resort Security,
down of ideas. John Steinbeck loved the pencil and started Charts. His most famous and enduring song is What a
every day with 24 freshly sharpened ones; it’s said that he Wonderful World (1967). About the song, he said: “Seems 627-2000.
went through 300 pencils in writing East of Eden (1952) to me it ain’t the world that’s so bad but what we’re doing Thank you.
and used 60 pencils a day on The Grapes of Wrath (1939) to it, and all I’m saying is: see what a wonderful world it
and Cannery Row (1945). would be if only we’d give it a chance.”

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