hamburg area historical society—a poetry reading: thursday, september 7 at 7 p.m.

the hamburg area historical society is hosting a poetry reading for the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history of berks county as a program for its members and the public on thursday, september 7 at 7 p.m. in the community room of hamburg area high school at 701 windsor street, hamburg, pa 19526.

hamburg's own betty kunkel from the second volume of poetry in this project will be the special featured guest for the evening. audience members will have the opportunity to meet betty and ask her questions about her memories in her former knitting mill jobs in hamburg. she is also mentioned in the poem of betty yeager in the upcoming third and final volume of poetry for this project, as a unique tie-in for her across 2016 and 2017 work in this community effort of preserving memories of seniors through interviews and poems crafted from this local history-hugging.

EDIT: on the eve of this event, i just heard word that betty yeager will be at this poetry reading as well and that the two bettys will be carpooling together. so it'll be an even more worthwhile event.

(below is betty kunkel, and pictured second is betty yeager)

 

here is betty yeager's poem, since betty kunkel will be a part of this poetry reading to share her conversational reflections about her time paralleled with a friend and co-worker of the same first name. (i keep finding myself wanting to say, two bettys walk into a knitting mill...oh spins on jokes.)

* 

betty yeager, hamburg borough | born: 1933

i picked up my man at the church picnic. they had put me

in charge of soda bottles at zion moselem lutheran church

that warm afternoon, so many lines of seasoned gravestones

behind us as we shared our smiles back and forth, savored

sunshine, any sudden breezes from wind and forest, specific

to the old dirt of earth in richmond township. william yeager

and his friend, john setzler, they were thirsty. initial flirting

began by the time william took a sip or a few, maybe a crisp

cola. after we married in 1951 or 1952, he became a truck

driver for burkey underwear company in hamburg, often

making trips to and from their warehouse down the road.

i had a job there, too, put binding on the top of the flatlock

seams on the crotch sections of what men wear under their 

slacks or to sleep when our world switches on its quiet signal

for restful silence. some say, the barn door’s open, a way

to snicker about the region i sewed. i trimmed the straps off

in this anatomy of the front, delicately deliberate motions

with my scissors. sometimes we ventured to the hamburg

diner on state street on a friday around lunchtime. a creek

runs behind our old mill. it’s still there. you didn’t have

time to joke on the clock. you had to get your work done.

another betty—betty kunkel, worked there, too. i’d seen her

at church in our girlhood days, always in vibrantly-patterned

dresses, hand-sewn by her mother, from old feed bags, some

of them flowered, others checkered. on saturday nights, her

parents took  her to zern’s farmers’ market to buy young

plants to raise on their land, that drive about an hour long.