PENNY - A - RIDE …

 

I’ve written about my grandfather, Harry Lee, quite a few times since I started my blog in 2006; however, I don’t think I ever included this:

My Papa Lee was an author with two published books and a play about the life of St. Francis which had a very short Broadway run in 1928. He was a very dear man and we 5 Lee sisters adored him. We were his only grandchildren and he would spoil us royally whenever he got the chance. I don’t know the exact year but one Christmas his gift to our family was a handwritten and hand sketched book of poems he titled “Penny-a-ride.” (from the age of the girls in the sketch I would imagine it to be around 1937).

In a post-Christmas cleaning frenzy I came across this book and, although his poetry is nowhere as good as his prose, it is still fun to re-read it. Here is a small sample:

                                                    ONE RED APPLE

                                    When Grandma and my Aunt Jeanette
                                    Were just like we are … little girls,
                                    There was a naughty boy would sneak
                                    Up close behind and pull their curls.

                                    And once he pulled my Grandma’s curls
                                    And ran off down the wagon track
                                    Where’s all the dust and then he turned
                                    And rolled a big red apple back.

                                    And when I asked her why he did and
                                    Where he did and when and how …
                                    My Grandma said, “Go ask him child,
                                    That naughty boy’s your Grandpa now.”