Lawrence Eyre - '66 Turns 75 Moline High School

 

'66 Turns 75  Moline High School

Once upon a time

We learned to read write pray sing

Dance kiss win lose drive

Sandbag serve mourn vote

Work earn date marry buy homes

Love and raise our kids

We grew old and wise

But unprepared for the cost

Of loved ones we lost

It’s time to confess

Bucket lists matter less than

Love beyond tears life

Past fears memories

Melodies of Moline years

Growing together.

Copyright, 2023, Lawrence Eyre

Lawrence Eyre on The King James Version

 "I enthusiastically recommend The King James Version by Gregory L Jackson:

The King James Bible

Remains without peer among

English translations.

Beauty and truth sing

With unmatched clarity in

Stately cadences.

Gregory Jackson's book

The King James Version tells

The blessed story."

Lawrence Eyre, MHS 66, Yale College and Yale Divinity School

 The King James Version

Poet Lawrene Eyre's Mother Celebrates 95th Birthday!

 Lawrence Eyre and his mother Collie

Review - The Haiku Books of Lawrence Eyre, MHS 66: Available at Amazon and Walmart.com

 Lawrence Eyre's Heartland Haiku is available at Amazon - as well as Walmart.com.

Eyre's Haiku Country is also available at Walmart.com, as well as at Amazon.com.

Lawrence inscribed this in the copy of Heartland Haiku that he sent to me for review:

"Greg: Whoda thunk Garfield kids would end up writing books after reading MAD?"

At John Deere Junior High, teachers called us The Garfield Gashouse Gang, because we clustered together and had the best time laughing and being mildly disruptive. Mr. McAlister said, "The teachers can spot the Garfielders in each class."

 

 Garfield is now a condo unit, so it really needs a touch of Photoshop nostalgia.

The author and I go back to second grade, which was 67 years ago, when Lawrence's family moved to Moline and he matriculated at Garfield Grade School. Ann Johnson-Zander also went to Garfield and the three of us graduated from Moline High in 1966. The three of us lived in the same area of Moline and attended Yale at various times. 

I joined Salem Lutheran Church, after asking Lawrence where he attended. The next Sunday I got out of the car and went to Salem instead of First Christian Church, across the street. My mother said, "Where are YOU going?" I said, "Across the street," and I never returned to First Christian. As Tolkien observed in The Hobbit, we never know where that path will take us. I went to Augustana College, where I met Christina Ellenberger, whose birthday is this week.

Lawrence won a full scholarship at Yale College and joined the famed Whiffenpoofs singing club at Yale. 

Lawrence and I went to Yale Divinity, but at different times. We have stayed in touch, in part because of MHS reunions and Facebook. I have enjoyed posting his memorabilia in Moline Memories, and his mother's birthdays. Christina and I knew her at Salem and we saw his father at the Billy Graham event in South Bend, Indiana. Lawrence's parents went to Augustana College and were both in the choir, which may explain his singing voice.

It is a small world and haikus are small poems. Epic poetry and large novels can dazzle or puzzle the mind. Poetry demands so much more per word, and the haiku exposes one's lack of poetic gifts.

Lawrence went to a high school and a college where literature was taught with a deep appreciation for the authors and their contribution to Western culture. Although he earned acclaim for coaching tennis, Lawrence's haikus have been a staple in social media.

A haiku is a Japanese stanza of 17 syllables, three lines, 5-7-5.

The first stanza in Heartland Haiku - 

If trees are giving 

Their lives for this I'd better

Say something worthwhile

and also

Find your voice they said

I'm finding mine as many

Voices go silent

Heartland Haiku is one continuous poem, a challenge most of us would not want to address. The stanzas are humorous and ironic, also touching on the pain and tumults of life and death.

Quiet heroism

Lives on wherever people

Work for daily bread

Haiku Country begins

In haiku country

Extra syllables die fast

Seventeen or bust

Later

Beatles and Beach Boys

Wrote haiku songs long before

Anyone noticed

And

No haiku today

Five seven five drives me nuts

Well maybe one more

These books are a delight. They are ideal gifts for people who would like to explore the craft and see how much can come from supposedly simple stanzas.

Lawrence and Laurie have been married 40 years.

She is also a tennis coach. Their teams have been phenomenally successful.

 My father took us to the Yale football stadium, to see them demolish Princeton's team.  

Two Wedding Anniversaries - Kris Streed and Lawrence Eyre

 Paul and Kris Streed Crawford have been married 49 years.

Lawrence Eyre married Laurie 40 years ago.

Happy Birthdays To Us - MHS 1966 - The Class the Stars Fell On.And Lawrence Eyre

 

Lawrence Eyrre's Mother - Doris - Is Celebrating Her 94th Birthday

 

Happy Mother's Day, Colly - Lawrence Eyre's Mother

Lawrence Eyre's mother is nicknamed Colly - she will be 94 in September!

Mother and poet, the early years.

Colly - a few years ago.

MHS 66 at Yale University

Yale Divinity School - Lawrence Eyre and I went there. Lawrence is a Whiffenpoof, the famous singing fraternity for undergraduates. I did eat lunch at Morey's once, the closest I got to being in a singing group.

Roland Bainton, author of Here I Stand, A Life of Martin Luther.

Yale Library - Roland Bainton had an office there. We went to meet him some years after finishing an STM. He helped me with my dissertation and offered to do some xeroxing for me! Anne Johnson-Zander earned a master's degree in music at Yale, so three of us from the Garfield Elementary School, MHS 66, earned degrees there.

Campanologists love the Harkins bell tower.

National Review has a report on universities, which prompted the nostalgia above. Yale College costs $57,000 for tuition and fees. Add on room and board! The top rated universities were in the same category, $50,000+ for tuition and fees.

Every college and university (with rare exceptions - like Purdue) raised prices as if the debt engine would never run out of gas.

Anton Boisen studied forestry at Yale. No, I am not kidding. Now it is the School of Environmental Studies, though forestry is easier to spell.  Boisen made his mark by championing chaplains at hospitals and similar institutions. The idea was to help people by integrating their illness with Christian care, an idea similar to the Inner Mission, which promoted nursing care and hospitals. 

Happy 93rd Birthday - Colly - Mother of Lawrence Eyre MHS 66

From Lawrence Eyre -  "Greg, my Mom's lifelong nickname is 'Colly'--her family name was Collier. My sister's name is Colleen."

"Lawrence, get down from there at once!"

Happy 38th Anniversary - Lawrence and Laurie Eyre

Laurie and Lawrence Eyre

Lawrence Eyre's Mother Celebrates Her 92nd Birthday

Lawrence Eyre's mother - Colleen - is 92.

 Colleen with baby Lawrence

 Last year, Colleen Peterson celebrated her 91st birthday.

 Lawrence was always goal oriented.

Missing Man from the Champion Hasty Tasty Little League Team

Moline Western Division Champions, Little League, 1961

Front row: Dave Olson, Ray Diehl (MHS 66), Eldon Alters, Larry Eyre (MHS 66), Norm Slead, Jim Medd (MHS 66), Kenny Brock.
Middle row: Scott Culbertson, Tom Culbertson, Trevor Davis, Tom Slead, Steve Olson, Dennis Edwards, Steve Talik, Curt Edwards.
Top row: Manager Bob Diehl, Coach Rick Slead.

Professor and Coach Lawrence Eyre Publishes a Book of Haiku Poetry

 The book is available here at Amazon.

He's Back

 Successful Tennis Programs - Lawrence Eyre.

Eyre returns to guide Maharishi tennis

• Scott Jackson
• • 
    

FAIRFIELD — It had seven years since Lawrence Eyre had been the head coach of the program he had turned into a statewide high school tennis powerhouse. 

In those seven years since Eyre's retirement, the Fairfield Maharishi tennis program had gone from a program that won the Class 1A boys state tennis triple crown (state champions in singles, doubles and as a team in the same year) to a program that could not produce a girls team in 2018 or a boys tennis team this spring.

Eyre returned after seven years away from the program he established back in 1988 this past spring, taking over as the head coach of the girls tennis team. The Pioneers returned to competition with enough athletes to put together a team that went 4-2 in duals and had its top player, Olivia Goodale, coming within one win of a spot in the Class 1A girls state single tournament.

For Eyre, a return as Fairfield Maharishi head girls tennis coach is chance to grow the love of the sport for generations to come.

"By the time I got back, it was pretty clear that we didn't have a lot of kids that were learning the sport. I'm really committed to teaching the next wave of kids," Eyre said. "We didn't have enough kids for a girls team last year. We didn't have enough kids for a boys team this year. We should have enough for both teams to compete next year, even if they're small squads. That's our goal to start and we want to keep the pipeline flowing from now on."

While the numbers have been down, there were kids that Eyre found willing to stick with the sport. Goodale, for one, refused to give up playing Pioneer tennis despite going through a pair of winless seasons as a sophomore and junior, including last year spent competing with the boys program.

"I was terrible when I started out. I got beat every single time as the fifth player in singles as a freshman, then had to go through even more setbacks playing for the guys last year," Goodale said. "It's all about having the breakthrough on the court. That moment this year when I got that first win is by far the best moment I've had.

More here...

 Lawrence and Laurie Eyre

Lawrence Eyre, MHS 66, Jefferson County History Series, Iowa

Happy 91st Birthday -- Lawrence Eyre's Mom

Colleen Peterson

Mother and Baby Lawrence

Happy 36th Wedding Anniversary, Lawrence and Laurie Eyre

 Same shirts, same profession, almost the same first name -
triple match point. Happy 36th Anniversary, Lawrence and Laurie Eyre.

Happy 90th Birthday - Lawrence Eyre's Mom

Doris Eyre - what a beautiful photo.

 The future coach was not quite ready for his close-up.
According to him, this photo with his mother Doris was his first spoon-feeding, in 1949. 

Grinnell men qualify for the NCAA tennis tournament..... Lawrence Eyre in So-Called Retirement