To top it off, the poor lad is a Dodger fan.

I was listening to the Cardinals and Mets on the way home and came into the house just in time to see the end of the game. A sweep for the Cardinals over the Mets and now I thought, nearing the close of another woeful week of work at the Big Fenced-In Place, it was time for me to sweep out the trash from my mind. I opened the windows, turned on some music and settled back in my chair. I began listening to Billie Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit', a song that I had not listened to for quite some time. Strangely, I immediately began to think about Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and I couldn't help but wonder why my mind had drifted off in that direction. This was not good, I'm sweeping out my mind.

The Rosenbergs, as many of you well know, were executed long ago after being found guilty of espionage. Actually, their executions were just 18 days after Ol' Simmons came into this world back in June of 1953. I read about that because I'm sure I have no recollection of the event. It was a time of the 'Red Scare', when the 'Cold War', the House Un-American Activities Committee and Joe McCarthy created a nightmare of communist paranoia. I remember after reading about the history of this era that I had asked my Dad what it was like to have lived through that time period and now all I can remember of his answer was "Joe McCarthy was a drunken idiot". One would think that I could have retained a little bit more of that conversation, but no, just 'drunken idiot' is all I remember.

Time magazine, in December of 1999, called 'Strange Fruit' the best song of the century. It is a deeply powerful song about a depressing and disturbingly dark side of our history. Here are the words to this hauntingly beautiful song:

Southern trees bear strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

As I sat there and listened to it for the second time, I knew that I had to find out why my mind drifted off to the Rosenbergs. I logged on to the internet to find some information on the Rosenbergs. In a matter of minutes, I found an on-line book, "Framing History: The Rosenberg Story and the Cold War" by Virginia Carmichael and it all came back to me. I had read about the Rosenbergs a few years ago and had wondered just what had happened to their two young sons after the executions. Putting myself in their place, I tried to conjure up what my feelings would have been, knowing that my parents were going to be executed. I just can't imagine the feelings.

From my reading of history, I have known that 'McCarthyism' was a term given for Joe McCarthy's scathing attacks on anyone he deemed to be a communist, while McCarthy himself, called it, "calling a man a communist who is later proven to be one." The Rosenberg's were definitely communists and it has been well established and proven that Julius did pass classified information to the Soviets. How much did Ethel know or was she even a participant in the espionage conspiracy, no one will ever know for sure, but she chose to die and leave her sons, that we do know. She had the opportunity to save herself and not abandon her children, but she declined to do so.

Robert and Michael, the Rosenberg's children, were 6 and 10 years old respectively, when their parents were executed. They were adopted by Abel and Anne Meeropol and took their last name. For years they lived anonymous lives, free from the notoriety of their parents. Michael is now a retired economics professor; Robert taught anthropology and later became a lawyer, now both are grandparents.

'Strange Fruit" was written by Lewis Allan after he saw a picture of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith. These two men were taken from their jail cell by a mob and executed. Oddly, this lynching didn't take place down in some southern State; it took place in Marion, Indiana in 1930. But the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair and not by hanging, so what was the connection?

It was Lewis Allan. Lewis Allan was the pseudonym used by Abel Meeropol when he wrote 'Strange Fruit'. Ahhh yes, back to the Lazy-Boy. Lighten up and put on some Stones, "Under my thumb. The girl who once had me down....."