Wednesday, December 23, 2009

An Arnold Schnabel Christmas sonnet


By popular demand we re-broadcast this beloved poem from the battered Royal portable of Arnold Schnabel, first published in the special "Holiday Fun" issue of the Olney Times in December, 1962.

“Christmas Eve in Olney

It’s Christmas Eve, the factories are closed,
The boys from Heintz and Budd and Tastykake*
Are free, the Proctor & Schwartz crew have hosed
Themselves down and gone home, each lad to take
Out his one good suit from off the Sears rack,
A crisp white shirt with tab collar from Krass
A thin dark tie, Thom McAn shoes of black;
Splash some Old Spice, then off to Midnight Mass;
But first a brief stop, but just for the one
At the Green Parrot, the Huddle, or Pat’s,
And perhaps also a shot, one and done,
Make it Four Roses, and backed with a Blatz;
Five to midnight, we have time for one more --
Who would dare bar us from Helena’s door?

*"Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake." -- Editor
(Please look to the right hand column of this page to find a listing of links to many other fine poems of Arnold Schnabel, many of them suitable for declamation at holiday dinners.)


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Arnold's in rare form here, showing us such a bright, clean world.

Bald Samson said...

I want to have a drink with these guys.