boyertown museum of historic vehicles-- an automotive industry poetry reading during the friday, may 26 art walk in boyertown.

the boyertown museum of historic vehicles is hosting a poetry reading at the end of this month, specifically focusing on automotive industry poems from the first and second volumes of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county.

the poetry reading is set for friday, may 26 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the fourth friday art walk in boyertown. the boyertown museum of historic vehicles is located at 85 south walnut street, boyertown, pa 19512. cost for admission is half of the usual rate during the art walk, $4 per person.

three special guests and their wives will be a part of the reading, and the audience is welcome to ask questions about their memories of these jobs which were such a big part of their lives and the regional economy, in the past. 

the featured guests will be walter delong, born in 1936, who worked at boyertown auto body works, jerry rothermel, born in 1949, who worked at tung-sol which specialized in headlight production for vehicles, and willie kramer, born in 1932, who did color-matching and leather-cutting work for the seats of automobiles at garden state tanning.

in the black shirt in the middle, walter delong sat in a trolley 

he and his co-workers made at boyertown auto body works

jerry rothermel and his mother, lena rothermel, both worked at 

tung-sol in boyertown, in the headlight production industry

willie kramer spent his time at garden state tanning in fleetwood 

in two different departments and saved his cutting tools as well as 

leather samples from not only producing automobiles but also footballs

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a poetry reading at the spring township library during april: national poetry month.

at the end of april, celebrating national poetry month, i visited a book club with a great name at the spring township library: novels at night. i love the alliterative lure of the name and how it's literally accurate for when the book club meets, in evenings.

the reading quickly became very conversation-rich, as the library's operations & circulation coordinator, kristine bonfitto, ordered in copies of my first and second volumes from other berks county libraries for book club members to have in advance so they'd have familiarity with the poems ahead of time. she also assisted kindly with photography during the reading.

and one member brought along pieces of history from a hosiery mill which her father owned in oley during her younger years. she even had samples of stockings and the small envelopes which would have held the pay of workers. and even a photograph of her father in the long gone mill joined her pile of artifacts which we loved seeing and passing around the table. everything lasted so nicely and had been maintained with great care, too.

horse haiku.

this morning, i interviewed a woman named betty seifrit about her job at boyertown auto body works for my poetry project on manufacturing history of berks county. her eventual poem will be a in my third and final book in my volumes which are funded in part by grants from the pennsylvania council on the arts and berks arts council. betty built left-hand side doors of army trucks and later did electrical work with wires and bulbs for trolleys, mail trucks, and other kinds of vehicles.

while interviewing betty, i noticed she had horses in the backyard. she said we could go visit them, and of course, i brought my camera along for that. she has a newly born colt. its momma is eight-years-old. i wrote a haiku for them, grateful for their beautiful contribution in my day. you might smile and let out a light laugh when you find out the baby horse's name.

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john wayne the colt stands

with his momma, his bones new

to red corner road