by George Salamon
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| "'Auld Lang Syne' is a staple of every New Year’s Eve, but few people are aware of this song’s original poignant purpose. Singing it began as a way to recall friends who had died in the previous year. In America in the middle of the nineteenth century, though, it became a way to reclaim the unity and purpose of a nation increasingly riven by divisions." —Roger Lee Hall, "An Early American 'Auld Lang Syne,'" We’re History, December 31, 2016 |
We hadn't been together
for so many years and
had so much to talk about
as we sat out in the cold
at a table frozen and bare
as we talked and talked until
my voice got hoarse, still
hoarse from the fairy tales
we had told each other when
we both were younger.
George Salamon came to America in 1948 when he was thirteen. It seems like it was very different from America this New Year's Eve, but how was it and how was it not? For a 2021 better than 2020.