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| Harry Chapin - Gone too soon, too soon. |
"Hunger is an obscenity and hunger in America is the ultimate obscenity.. We have to stop feeding the symptoms and get to the real root causes of hunger and poverty"
Harry Chapin
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| Wild About Harry |
At the height of Harry Chapin's considerable impact and well-earned acclaim as a troubadour in the pop music world, he was actively involved in a number of social reform movements including the Union for Radical Political Economics. And in the summer of '79 the URPEs came to Hampshire College for a few days of fomenting to envision a new world order. Yours truly was earning money before returning to Hamilton College, by scrubbing pots for Food Services in the Hampshire dining hall, and working occasional extra hours at special events.
One afternoon, I joined a couple of co-workers including my brother and signed on to man the cookout grill for these Radical Economists. Experience on the grill at McDonalds made me a good man for the job. We clowns did set-up, fired that thing up, and got the burgers and dogs cooking. Up the hill came marching the grimy throng - one with guitar case in hand.
We the noble laborers watched, rapt, as Harry jawboned with professors and organizers - his eyes lit up, his speech and body highly animated. It was clear he was passionate on the topic, and very inspiring to those within earshot. Then we rang the chow-bell, and it was time to line 'em up at the trough.
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| To Each, According To Need |
As they all filed through the line with paper plates, each had to declare "Hamburger" or "Cheeseburger." Harry requested a cheeseburger, saying "I'll take a Cheeseburger!" I made sure he got one, responding "Here's your cheeseburger!"
It is worth pointing out that my brother Dave was inclined in these situations to tape a sheet of paper to his apron, announcing the hand-written message "I am the Condiments Man. If you Don't See It, we Don't Have It. So, Don't Ask Me For It."
Rumor had it that Harry would be performing, campfire-style, to rollick the assembled rabble rousers after dinner as night fell. And we learned the next day this is precisely what happened. He'd played Chapin, Seeger, Guthrie, and Kingston Trio numbers. But we working stiffs had been shoo'd away (by management, not URPE mind you) as soon as the last burger was issued and the grill scraped.
Chapin was then lobbying and cajoling the Carter government to establish the Presidential Commission on World Hunger and - with New World Order subversive Bill Ayres - he co-founded World Hunger Year (now Why Hunger). The Chapin family continues this work today.
Note: Harry's older brother Jim had graduated from Hamilton College in 1963, and by this time in 1979 Harry's step-daughter, Jaime, was attending Hamilton along with me. Although we had not previously become acquainted, Jaime and I had a brief and lighthearted moment when I introduced myself to her later in the fall of 1979 to recount my "cheeseburger" anecdote.
31 years ago this week - a year after I graduated, but before Jaime's senior year - Harry was killed in a car accident at 38. His stories and works live on, and on.
Chapin recorded long narrative ballads ... that told stories about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, about the social and political events of the day and the angst and struggles of human existence.
(excerpted from a really nice post on Colin Pinter's blog).
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