From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #115 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Saturday, July 7 2007 Volume 09 : Number 115 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Meaning of Sparrows Point ["John McDonnell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:19:15 -0400 From: "John McDonnell" Subject: [RS] Meaning of Sparrows Point Hey all, Missed the list because of vacation, but glad to see Sparrows Point in the spotlight. Trying hard not to overswing on this interpretation thing, but on a few details: I don't think it's Boonetown, but boomtown, which would be a generic term for many such towns that sprung up during the late (?) 19th-early 20th century, like mining towns for example. They quickly turned to ghost towns after the crash (the Great Fall). As for the "shroud of steam"--it's certainly got the religious overtones, but I see it as a steamboat taking him to the steel plant at Sparrows Point. During the Depression I imagine this as a very bleak place, but I still don't know what the slingshot is, unless its a foreshadowing of the rifle he has at the end, and if so, I'm not sure how or if that's a significant difference. Matthew, I think you skipped over the best verse in the song--the one which contains the great line--Their pockets full of photographs, their eyes full of goodbyes--which is the best description of a displaced community I have ever heard. As for three days west of Normandy--I see that as three days before the landing; if it were three days after, he would be east of Normandy, as the Allied forces progressed. The rifle in his hand I see as an ironic twist--Bethlehem Steel (owners of Sparrows Point) did not prosper until the war, and I imagine them, or even William Taylor as having made the rifle he now holds. I don't know enough history to ponder the political ramifications of that twist--if it exists, but there you have it. I think he's going to die in the invasion, holding a rifle he just made. As for the math, I think "twenty one" just fit in metrically. John McD. ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V9 #115 ***********************************