Today I would like to reflect upon my father’s life through a revelation I had about his love of the arts, and specifically — country music.
In September 2019, Ken Burns did another one of his amazing documentaries, this time about country music. At first, I was not very interested in watching. But, by chance, I had to work at night while it was being broadcast, and I decided to listen. To my surprise, I knew a lot of the music and musicians, especially as the episodes reached the 1960s and 1970s.
I first knew the bluegrass music from a concert my father took me to of the Seldom Scene at the Smithsonian in 1977. There I heard my favorite bluegrass song, Paradise.
But whether bluegrass music with Bill Monroe or Lester Flats; or Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings or Emmylou Harris, I knew these artists and their music because of my father. If you lived in my father’s home or drove with him in his car, you often heard this music. And Dad didn’t just listen to the music — he lived the music. He had fancy cowboy boots with intricate stitching and exotic skins. And beautiful felt and woven cowboy hats with beautiful bands and trim
Finally, at the end of the documentary, the narrator Peter Coyote, said in his summary:
Country music is a complicated chorus of American voices
Joining together to tell a complicated American story
It has been handed down from generation to generation
Moving from farm fields and churches and family porches into every corner of the country
As I listened to these words, and the other artists talk about the music, I realized my father loved this music because he loved this country, he loved being American, and everything about the American experience
Even where he did not have firsthand familiarity.
My father was born and raised in urban Newark New Jersey and vacationed in the non-rural parts of south Florida;
By age seven, the Second World War had ended, and America entered its greatest period of prosperity. As a boy in north Jersey, he followed the New York Yankees, who, in the 1940s and 50s, became the greatest team in baseball history including winning five straight World Series titles from 1949 to 1953.
In 1961, at age 23, he married the love of his life and was blessed with over sixty years of marriage. And in the same decade, he saw America put a man on the moon. He also was able to fully pursue his interest in science and earned a doctorate in Physics.
And for most of the rest of his life, my father gave back to the community from which he came. He became a professor of Physics at the Newark College of Engineering, which later became the New Jersey Institute of Technology. And during many of the summers, he taught Math and Physics to high school students who did not have such classes in their curriculum.
I mentioned earlier my favorite bluegrass song, Paradise. The main chorus of that song goes:
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
The times we had with my father were times of paradise. My father had big, soft hands that tied directly to a big and soft heart. And when he held you in his embrace and shared his warmth and compassion, those were moments of paradise in our lives. I will miss those embraces, but always cherish that William Savin was my father. That he blessed my life with his caring, love, and guidance. These are the fond memories I keep with me. I love you dad, and I miss you.