THE STORY BEHIND "TIE A YELLOW RIBBON"

[kampanaryo_spy]

Almost everybody will agree that there's a certain poignancy to the song Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree. Let me share with you a short essay written in October 1971 by Pete Hamill which, to me, is a model of how an essay should be written. In it, Hamill traces the more poignant story from which the phenomenal song is said to have originated. Highlights on beautiful lines are mine. (k_spy)


GOING HOME
by Pete Hamill


I first heard this story a few years ago from a girl I had met in New York's Greenwich Village. The girl told me that she had been one of the participants. Since then, others to whom I have related the tale have said that thay had read a version of it in some forgotten book, or been told it by an acquaintance who said that it actually happened to a friend. Probably the story is one of those mysterious bits of folklore that emerge from the national subconscious every few years, to be told anew in one form or another. The cast of character shifts, the message endures. I like to think that it did happen, somewhere, sometime.

THEY WERE going to Fort Lauderdale-three boys and three girls-and when they boarded the bus, they were carrying sandwiches and wine in paper bags, dreaming of golden beaches and sea tides as the gray cold of New York vanished behind them.

As the bus passed through New Jersey, they began to notice Vingo. He sat in front of them, dressed in a plain, ill-fitting suit, never moving, his dusty face masking his age. He chewed the inside of his lip a lot, frozen into some personal cocoon of silence.

Deep into the night, outside Washington, the bus pulled into a Howard Johnson's, and everybody got off except Vingo. He sat rooted in his seat, and the young people began to wonder about him, trying to imagine his life; perhaps he was a sea captain, a runaway from his wife, an old soldier going home. When they went back to the bus, one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself.

"We're going to Florida," she said brightly. "I hear it's beautiful."

"It is," he said quietly, as if remembering something he had tried to forget.

"Want some wine?" she said. He smiled and took a swig. He thanked her and retreated again into his silence. After a while, she went back to the others, and Vingo nodded in sleep.

In the morning they awoke outside another Howard Johnson's, and this time Vingo went in. The girl insisted that he join them. He seemed very shy, and ordered black coffee and smoked nervously as the young people chattered about sleeping on beaches. When they returned to the bus, the girl sat with Vingo again, and after a while, slowly and painfully, he told his story. He had been in jail in New York for the past four years, and now he was going home.

"Are you married?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" she said.

"Well, when I was in the can I wrote to my wife," he said. "I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn't stand it, if the kids kept askin' questions, if it hurt too much, well, she could just forget me. I'd understand. Get a new guy, I said-she's a wonderful woman, really something- and forget about me. I told her she didn't have to write me or nothing. And she didn't. Not for three and a half years."

"And you're going home now, not knowing?"

"Yeah," he said shyly. "Well, last week, when I was sure the parole was coming through, I wrote her again. We used to live in Brunswick, just before Jacksonville, and there's a big oak tree just as you come into town. I told her that if she'd take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree, and I'd get off and come home. If she didn't want me, forget it- no handkerchief, and I'd go through."

"Wow," the girl said. "Wow."

She told the other, and soon all of them were in it, caught up in the approach of Brunswick, looking at the pictures Vingo showed them of his wife and three children-the woman handsome in a plain way, the children still unformed in the cracked, much- handled snapshots.

Now they were 20 miles from Brunswick, and the young people took over window seats on the right side, waiting for the approach of the great oak tree. The bus acquired a dark, hushed mood, full of the silence of absence and lost years. Vingo stopped looking, tightening his face into the ex-con's mask, as if fortifying himself against still another disappointment.

Then Brunswick was ten miles, and then five. Then, suddenly, all of the young people were up out of their seats, screaming and shouting and crying, doing small dances of exultation. All except Vingo.

Vingo sat there stunned, looking at the oak tree. It was covered with yellow handkerchiefs-20 of them, 30 of them, maybe hundreds, a tree that stood like a banner of welcome billowing in the wind. As the young people shouted, the old con rose from his seat and made his way to the front of the bus to go home.

[kiboglets]

"Well, when I was in the can I wrote to my wife," he said. "I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn't stand it, if the kids kept askin' questions, if it hurt too much, well, she could just forget me. I'd understand. Get a new guy, I said-she's a wonderful woman, really something- and forget about me. I told her she didn't have to write me or nothing. And she didn't. Not for three and a half years."

k_spy,

ini gayud nganhi na portion mosugod pagtagdo an ako mababaw na luha kay kadayaw niya na wara gayud niya obligaha an iya asawa na huwaton siya obien ba dawaton siya kun makagawas siya sa prisohan. Sa amo sa una panawan ulian kami wara say lamang ikasulti ay2 an amo KAAGI puydi sa gayud sa MMK .

[pato]

"Well, when I was in the can I wrote to my wife," he said. "I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn't stand it, if the kids kept askin' questions, if it hurt too much, well, she could just forget me. I'd understand. Get a new guy, I said-she's a wonderful woman, really something- and forget about me. I told her she didn't have to write me or nothing. And she didn't. Not for three and a half years."

k_spy,

ini gayud nganhi na portion mosugod pagtagdo an ako mababaw na luha kay kadayaw niya na wara gayud niya obligaha an iya asawa na huwaton siya obien ba dawaton siya kun makagawas siya sa prisohan. Sa amo sa una panawan ulian kami wara say lamang ikasulti ay2 an amo KAAGI puydi sa gayud sa MMK .

hi kiboglets,
I know how confused you must feel those days. I understand the pain that you were enduring. There is always suffering involved as we walk the path. I do not want to minimize what you’re going through. But I must tell you that, if you could look down at your life from fifty-thousand-foot perspective, everything that’s happening is very beautiful. Growth sometimes comes in difficult ways. But growth is always good. The way to your dreams can only be found with one foot in eternity and the other on shaky ground.

[kiboglets]

"Well, when I was in the can I wrote to my wife," he said. "I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn't stand it, if the kids kept askin' questions, if it hurt too much, well, she could just forget me. I'd understand. Get a new guy, I said-she's a wonderful woman, really something- and forget about me. I told her she didn't have to write me or nothing. And she didn't. Not for three and a half years."

k_spy,

ini gayud nganhi na portion mosugod pagtagdo an ako mababaw na luha kay kadayaw niya na wara gayud niya obligaha an iya asawa na huwaton siya obien ba dawaton siya kun makagawas siya sa prisohan. Sa amo sa una panawan ulian kami wara say lamang ikasulti ay2 an amo KAAGI puydi sa gayud sa MMK .

hi kiboglets,
I know how confused you must feel those days. I understand the pain that you were enduring. There is always suffering involved as we walk the path. I do not want to minimize what you’re going through. But I must tell you that, if you could look down at your life from fifty-thousand-foot perspective, everything that’s happening is very beautiful. Growth sometimes comes in difficult ways. But growth is always good. The way to your dreams can only be found with one foot in eternity and the other on shaky ground.

pats,

thank you. all those sufferings are water under the bridge now. We were brought up by our beloved mother to be forgiving. I have no regrets of what happened, it made me( including my siblings) who i am now, a better person.

[kampanaryo_spy]

kibs,

what i like about this essay is its simplicity and subtlety that hits us where it hurts most. pete hamill doesn''t use sentimental words and yet we, as readers, feel Vingo's fear and uncertainty.

and i like it very much the way hamill characterizes Vingo with these words: the children still unformed in the cracked, much- handled snapshots. makes me think how often Vingo looks at the photographs while in prison, which speaks of the kind of a family person that he is.

isn't it interesting that in the third to the last paragraph hamill refers to Vingo as an "ex-con's face" and then calls him simply "old con" in the end?

it's when i encounter this kind of writing that i wish i could write even just half as good.

[kiboglets]

kibs,

what i like about this essay is its simplicity and subtlety that hits us where it hurts most. pete hamill doesn''t use sentimental words and yet we, as readers, feel Vingo's fear and uncertainty.

it's when i encounter this kind of writing that i wish i could write half as good.

k_spy,
bah isab uno kaw yakamenos kaw kanimo? ka level mo da iton sila including KHALED

may mokontra lamang patyon ko lage

[kampanaryo_spy]

k_spy,
bah isab uno kaw yakamenos kaw kanimo? ka level mo da iton sila including KHALED.

did i sound like i was fishing for a compliment? hahahaha saba kaw kibs, kilatan kay kita.

my problem now is where to tie the yellow ribbons for BALIK TAGO this august, now that the acacia tree has been cut down.

[kiboglets]

k_spy,
bah isab uno kaw yakamenos kaw kanimo? ka level mo da iton sila including KHALED

did i sound like i was fishing for a compliment? hahahaha saba kaw kibs, kilatan kay kita.

my problem now is where to tie the yellow ribbons for BALIK TAGO this august, now that the acacia tree has been cut down.

k_spy,

ay2 dayon bisan dili kaw lagi mag fish kay modUd kay gayud an fish.
naay pa kon an problem mo where to tie the yellow ribbons hanapa an gapila nan acacia haw siya an hukti tun tama na mga yellow ribbons.

ilakip an gasugo pagpapila.

[toyang]

K-spy,

Kabido mo na kahamok iton mga puno nan niyog ngadto.Di ngadto mo dakan naay
igakot an yellow ribbon. peace kamps.

[kampanaryo_spy]

"Well, when I was in the can I wrote to my wife," he said. "I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn't stand it, if the kids kept askin' questions, if it hurt too much, well, she could just forget me. I'd understand. Get a new guy, I said-she's a wonderful woman, really something- and forget about me. I told her she didn't have to write me or nothing. And she didn't. Not for three and a half years."

k_spy,

ini gayud nganhi na portion mosugod pagtagdo an ako mababaw na luha kay kadayaw niya na wara gayud niya obligaha an iya asawa na huwaton siya obien ba dawaton siya kun makagawas siya sa prisohan. Sa amo sa una panawan ulian kami wara say lamang ikasulti ay2 an amo KAAGI puydi sa gayud sa MMK .

kibs,

yaka move on na kaw gayud kay you can talk freely about it. attagirl!

[toyang]

Kibs,

Abihay mo ning, usahay sa gud mag itugot nan Ginoo na maka experience kita nan yaon na kaagi for us to learn and become a better person. And I admire you for that.

[kampanaryo_spy]

Kibs,

Abihay mo ning, usahay sa gud mag itugot nan Ginoo na maka experience kita nan yaon na kaagi for us to learn and become a better person.

saktohi kaw gayud yang. suffering is always good for the soul.

duda ko yang youtube is now busy spinning "tie a yellow ribbon" for you. same here, with tony orlando's version!

here's the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1pkR1l4iSgE

[kiboglets]

Kibs,

Abihay mo ning, usahay sa gud mag itugot nan Ginoo na maka experience kita nan yaon na kaagi for us to learn and become a better person. And I admire you for that.

mana toyang,

experience really is our best teacher and all the merit goes to............ ITAS my one in a million mother.

[kiboglets]

"Well, when I was in the can I wrote to my wife," he said. "I told her that I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn't stand it, if the kids kept askin' questions, if it hurt too much, well, she could just forget me. I'd understand. Get a new guy, I said-she's a wonderful woman, really something- and forget about me. I told her she didn't have to write me or nothing. And she didn't. Not for three and a half years."

k_spy,

ini gayud nganhi na portion mosugod pagtagdo an ako mababaw na luha kay kadayaw niya na wara gayud niya obligaha an iya asawa na huwaton siya obien ba dawaton siya kun makagawas siya sa prisohan. Sa amo sa una panawan ulian kami wara say lamang ikasulti ay2 an amo KAAGI puydi sa gayud sa MMK .

kibs,

yaka move on na kaw gayud kay you can talk freely about it. attagirl!

k_spy,

thank you.........move on mo lang! labaw pa! i guess i was born a fighter and a survivor.

[sughac]

K_spy,

What a piece of work !!! Simple yet runs deep to your heart... thanks K_spy.