The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [57]
At first Clyde had some difficulty reading the small print in the songbook. Leon noticed this, and the next day, as they were about to sing, he extracted from his pocket a piece of paper on which he had copied America in large print. With Leon in the middle and Clyde and Joseph standing close on either side of him—barbershop style—they sang America.
During the first two months the songs varied—The Star-Spangled Banner, America, Onward Christian Soldiers, Glory, Glory Halleluja, read from songbooks—but soon an “official” song was established. The meeting would open and close with the first verse of America (England’s song, Joseph said). The format remained the same, no matter who was chairman, and suggestions from us to vary the song were of no avail.[2] It should be mentioned, however, that Leon objected immediately to certain words and phrases in America and altered them to fit his delusional system. He did not believe in “pride,” so “Pilgrim’s pride” became “Pilgrim’s stride”; and for “Land where my fathers died” Leon substituted “Land where I died the death.” And this is the way he sang America henceforth.
One meeting in the middle of November was particularly memorable. The three men sang many songs. Joseph whistled, conducted, danced, and sang. Leon asked Clyde if he would play a tune on his harmonica. Clyde pulled the harmonica out of his pocket and played while Joseph danced. When Clyde finished, they all applauded heartily. Then Joseph borrowed Clyde’s harmonica and played a tune. They ended by singing America.
During the meetings Joseph and Leon spent a great deal of time poring over a large atlas Joseph had obtained somewhere. The two of them huddled over the maps, looking up, for example, the countries that border on Roumania, Alaska, and so on. There was not much actual discussion but they were physically very close, and they were co-operating toward a common goal.
At one of the sessions Leon got up on three separate occasions to light Clyde’s pipe. During that same meeting he read a poem by Robert Burns, affecting a rather good Scottish burr. Clyde looked at Leon, his eyes squinting in a smile of approval. Joseph, crossing the room, took the book from Leon, who was in the middle of another poem. “Here, give it to me, I’ll do justice to it.” Leon smiled, protested weakly, and gave the book to Joseph. Joseph read a poem, not as entertainingly as Leon, and handed the book back, saying: “There! That just goes to show you what good English is!” This kind of give-and-take went on throughout the meeting. Then, as I was putting away the tape recorder, with Leon bending over to help, Joseph “goosed” him. Leon, straightening up with a jerk, said: “Sir, what did you do that for? I didn’t deserve that. If I were R-r-robbie Bur-r-rns I’d speak in a much louder voice.” He said this in a quiet tone of pretended offense, but was not able to conceal his amusement. Joseph, smirking, replied: “I wanted to get my Scotch accent back.” As they left the room, Joseph said: “Well, we had a good poetry reading tonight.”
During the last two months of 1959 we were to observe many other instances of increasing camaraderie. For example, Leon often complimented Joseph on his ability to read French, and began to call him Joey. Leon offered his own cigarettes to the others and to us. Once Joseph, using a lorgnette, read to Clyde and Leon from a play; he would look up as he finished each piece of dialogue as if to assess his impact on the audience. Throughout, Clyde whispered good-humoredly, and Leon smiled.
After seven weeks of these chaired meetings we succeeded in getting the men to meet on weekends without us, and also persuaded them to submit reports on the proceedings. These reports were sometimes realistic accounts, but more often they were not.
October 17. We’ve had a meeting, this Saturday; the subject was on thinking; a subject, which is most interesting! It is, however, a very familiar subject! A subject that everybody seems to enjoy!
I have a book which be entitled: “Think and Grow Rich.