We will return to our ongoing unexpurgated serialization of Arnold Schnabel' s mammoth masterwork Railroad Train to Heaven after the Christmas weekend, but in the meantime we give you again one of Arnold's most beloved poems, first published in the Christmas 1962 number of the Olney Times...
“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
(Check the right hand column of this page for listings of links to many other fine poems by Arnold Schnabel, as well as to our exclusive ongoing serialization of his classic Schaefer Award-winning memoir Railroad Train to Heaven.)
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