in late may, the boyertown museum of historic vehicles hosted a poetry reading from this project during the still slightly new fourth friday art walk in boyertown.
throughout the night, people ventured up to the top of town to visit the museum and hear poems read about the special guests, 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.
the wives of the guest were also a part of the reading and brought in some of their own reflections about the work from their viewpoints, and some other guests talked about their old jobs, including some allergic reactions to materials in the manufacturing process. oofh. (not cool, but surely useful for the telling.)
some visitors arrived later, wanting to hear jerry's poem, so i sat and vocalized it for them, close so ears would suit well for listening. they were his relatives who'd heard about the event at the museum but couldn't get there earlier in the evening. and jerry is related to walter by marriage. so family ties were weaving through the night a bit.
willie donated a large piece of automotive leather from his former workplace to the museum at the end of the night, too.
thank you to lillee grace hetrick for her assistance with some of the photography for this poetry reading at the museum.
and some museum scenes.
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