I Remember Yesterday

Here I am again with thoughts to remember and dreams to dream on, things that make one wish that yesterday was tomorrow. When the back woods were filled with choke cherry trees, and your tongue puckered up and still you felt up to the challenge and kept on eating to prove you were mightier than all the others. Back before housing developments squeezed us all into small spaces and and pastures filled with pismires became a thing of the past.

I Remember Yesterday

I remember yesterday and all the things I use to do,

How I played in Barbour’s Field and where the wild iris grew.

And Tannery Brook in winter was like a winter paradise,

I spent endless hours there, playing on the ice.

Up on the end of Summer Street there was a place we called,

Round The Turn,

And every kid that played baseball went up there to learn.

The fields were filled with lilies of the valley and they perfumed the summer air,

But the fields and lilies have long since gone, and now there are houses there.

On every February 22^nd our town joined in a celebration,

They would light a gigantic bonfire to honor the father of our nation.

I recall the big parades on every Fourth of July,

And the magic of fireworks that lit up the nighttime sky.

These were the days when we got our nickels worth, sometime even more,

When we bought penny candy, down at Andy’s Handy store.

On Saturday night the band would play above Charlie’s barbershop

And anyone passing by suddenly would stop.

It was as though they were listening to Sousa, as music filled the air,

And I have such fond memories of all of this because my parents took me there.

Yes I recall with fondness those days that use to be,

The days of hopscotch and alley pots, the days of simplicity.

And when I think of Yarmouth, I recall how way back when,

Nearly every house on West Main Street kept chickens in a pen.