Alone and Afraid, 1971

 There is a lot of talk about being lonely and scared.  Is it just talk?  Do people say, "It will never happen to me"?  It seems that people say they are strong, when they're not.  It can't be expounded on except to say, everyone wears a mask.  Some people were masks all the time; some just wear them around some people, but it is all the same.  People are alone and afraid.  They care about themselves.  Everyone is self-centered.
 Being alone comes in all sizes and shapes.  One can be alone mentally, spiritually, or physically or a combination of all three or any two.  It just isn't right to assume that nobody is ever alone.
 Being afraid is the only thing we can't overcome.  One can be alone and remedy that, but one can't stop being afraid.  Why?  Because everything around us, that we do not know--scares us.  This is called a phobia--being afraid of something.
 Some are alone and afraid.
 This is chronic.

Albert Frankenstein, 1971

Poor old Albert Frankenstein,
Why are you so sad?
Your mother says you're ugly,
Your father says you're bad,
But this is no reason to be sad,
Poor old Albert Frankenstein,
We love you.

Little Albert Frankenstein,
Why are you so blue?
You don't have any friends,
All your family don't know you,
Won't you give us a clue?
Don't you see we love you?

Poor old Albert Frankenstein,
Put that gun away,
Don't take your life we beg of you,
Don't put your name on a police file,
You don't have to do this,
What can we say?

We love you Albert Frankenstein,
Just because you're not the best in the world,
Just because your face is not grand,
Doesn't mean you must end it.

You say that you have nothing to live for,
But look at those people without anything,
No radios, T.V.'s, or movie screens,
No food, no clothes, no house to call their own,
But do you think they're mad at the world?
Do you think they're sad with themselves?
No---they're happy--yes they're happy,
Because they have a life to live,
They have LOVE to give,
So put the gun away poor old Albert Frankenstein,
And live that life that you have for good,
We love you Albert Frankenstein.

Air, 1974

If there is hope
Or if there's despair
At least you'll know
If there's magic in the air.

What is air?

Afraid, 1971

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Look Problems Paranoia Schizoid
CROWDS SCARE ME
Cruel Harsh Bad Worse Sick
Stare Laugh Chuckle Look

Cruel          Schizophrenia        Much
Righteous   Chuckle                 Energetic
Opium        Animals
Wrong        Raunchy
Dead           Eureka
Sick

If people are so afraid,
Why do people care,
         and why are they killers?

Acrostic

If the
Love
Of all the
Very
Entertaining people pleases
You, then
Only you will
Understand.

My Writings (Introduction)

I am starting a new series here of my writings.  It is not all of my writings.  I had to go through and edit out some stuff that I felt couldn't be published now.  However, this bunch will last quite a while.  I started writing in 1958 with a commercial for OK Cereal.  Yogi Bear was the spokesman for the cereal, and I wrote a commercial for him.  I was five years old.  My parents sent the commercial to the advertiser who responded saying that it was good, and to come back to them, when I turned 18.  Of course by then, there was no OK Cereal, and no advertiser, but my parents recognized my creativity.  I wrote my first poem in 1964.  It was called "People", and as it turned out, Herman's Hermits came out with a song a few months later called "Listen People", which was very close to my poem, but I was a kid and didn't know I could sue.  I started writing more seriously around 1969 and continued on and off throughout the rest of my life so far.  I have also written plays, short stories, articles, speeches, and even started a few novels.  I say "started", because they were never finished.  So, here we go.  I have to say, before we start, that you can read into things as you wish.  You may be insulted or perplexed as to what you read.  All I have to say is that you should consider these pieces as snapshots into my life.  I may have been serious, when I wrote something, and I may not believe now what I wrote then.  I dated a girl years ago who didn't like her picture taken.  She said it froze the moment, and she wanted to be more fluid.  I don't necessarily agree with that, but her logic was valid.  Taken out of context, some of these writings could be construed as bad or damaging.  However, I hope you will take them for what they are.  My mind at work.  However strange it is.
  Walter Durst, 2013

Home

 40 years ago today, I woke up in Barcelona, Spain.  Everyone got up early in anticipation of going home.  We had been on the road for three weeks.  We had been with each other for the three weeks.  It would be nice to get home to my own bed and not have to live out of a suitcase for a while. 
  One of the unwritten rules I had to live by for the three weeks was not to take any pictures of the girls without makeup.  I broke that rule that morning, as I had to take pictures of Sandra and Talula without makeup.  They weren't thrilled, but my main reason for doing it was I had to use up the film in my camera, so that I could guard it from being exposed by any x-ray machine. 
  We got to the airport and onto the Pan Am plane to take us home.  We didn't know that there was going to be one more stop before the trans-Atlantic flight.  The plane stopped in Lisbon, Portugal.  We wanted to get off of the plane and go into the airport to say we had visited Portugal, but the flight attendants wouldn't let us.  They did let us go out on the tarmac briefly.  So, in the three weeks, we had visited England, Italy, Israel, West Germany, East Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Portugal.  9 countries in 21 days.  We were exhausted.
  The flight home was long and boring.  We tried our best to entertain ourselves.  I watched the Sid Caesar film "Ten from Your Show of Shows".  It was very funny.  From where I was sitting in the plane, I could also watch the film "1776" which was being shown in another cabin.  I also wrote music to a poem that I had written in Israel called "Save the World for the Children".  Many years later, it was blessed by Pope John Paul II.  The Pan Am plane landed at JFK in New York. 
  When we got to customs, the guy searching the bags found my rose that had been given to me in Switzerland.  He got upset and started asking me a bunch of questions as to where it came from.  They called a guy with the Department of Agriculture to look at my rose with a magnifier to see if there were any bugs on the rose.  They didn't want anything strange to be brought into this country.  The scanner saw nothing, but to be on the safe side, he broke off the flower, and handed the stem back to me.  I was not pleased.  I still have the stem to this day.
  It was not long before our next plane took us back to Greenville.   Most of us got a little sleep.  Talula's head rested on Sandra's shoulder, and Sandra's head rested on my shoulder.  I had a pillow. 
  One of the things we found, when we got home, were a lot of yellow ribbons.  The song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree" was very popular at that time.  In fact, we had re-written the song while on the trip changing the line "It's been three long years" to "It's been three long weeks".  Our families didn't know about that, but they got yellow ribbons to welcome us home. 
  Upon getting home, there was still some unfinished business.  We all said goodbye to our fellow travelers.  I made arrangements with Sandra to stop by her house in a few weeks and pick up some pictures she had taken and wanted to get some that I had taken.  And then, there was the History course.  I had to write a term paper on what I had seen.  So, I wrote about the people and the experiences.  The professor gave my paper back to me ungraded, and said I needed to write about the historical things I had seen.  So, I went to the library and looked at a bunch of books and figured out what I had seen.  It had been a blur.  I got an A, but I couldn't swear in court that what was in the paper was what we actually saw. 
  It was a memorable experience.  They say travel broadens one.  I guess that is true.  Although, I would like to go back and actually see the sights without fear of death.  Talula, Sandra and I remain friends to this day.  Many of the tour members are dead now.  I sort of lost touch with them.  40 years is a long time.  I pray they are okay.  As for Sam, Omar and Sam?  Well, you would have to ask them.