on Wednesday night,
Arley put his arm across my shoulder
and asked me to come and
perform at the President’s birthday ball.
Ma can’t say no to this one.
It’s for President Roosevelt.
Not that Mr. Roosevelt will actually be there,
but the money collected at the ball,
along with balls all over the country,
will go,
in the President’s name,
to the Warm Springs Foundation,
where Mr. Roosevelt stayed once when he was sick.
Someday,
I plan to play for President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt himself.
Maybe I’ll go all the way to the White House in
Washington, D.C.
In the meantime,
it’s pretty nice
Arley asking me to play twice,
for Joyce City.
January 1934