Lonely thoughts on a beach

When I last saw you

I thought I’d be back.

I didn’t think my good-bye

was so-long forever.

But here I sit on the beach,

looking beyond the cold ocean,

wondering where you are, 

how you’re doing,

if you still remember me.

I’m okay if you’re curious.

My studies were followed by jobs

and before you know it

I was practically American.

But I’m not quite all-American.

There’s no house with a white picket fence

or dogs running around a yard 

or a spouse with kids in my home.

Instead there are nights on WhatsApp,

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

with the TV on and bed unmade.

There are weekend days on the beach,

cold days, warm days, lonely days.

Yes, I got the education and career I wanted,

but I still don’t have you.

Will you be coming over any time soon?

Or should I came back for you?

Anyway, where are you?

copyright Charles A. Bruns, 2019

City of Champions, by Hank Gola

You don't write a book like City of Champions simply because you're an experienced sportswriter who majored in history at college and now have some time on your hands. You write such a great book because you have a passion for the subject and you're on a mission to share it like no one else can. And, that's exactly what Hank Gola did in his very well written and thoroughly researched book about the 1939 Garfield High School football team and the events leading up to their national championship game in Miami that Christmas Day. 

Hank has been promoting his book in New Jersey and Florida and parts in between this winter. His schedule included a presentation at the Morristown and Morris Township library in Morristown, NJ this afternoon during which he shared stories from his book and displayed some very well-preserved varsity sportswear from 1939 (above). I was happy to see my former Herald-News colleague for the first time in nearly 40 years there. A friend of mine and, like Hank, a fellow Garfield H.S. graduate, Roy Pelcher, was also glad to be there and learn more about the legendary football team and their hometown's history.

In my review of City of Champions on Amazon earlier this winter, I wrote, "If it were possible to give City of Champions six stars, I would. If you are a sports fan and history buff interested in reading about a high school football team from a working class town that went undefeated and laid claim to the national championship, you might, too. (And if you're not, you might just give it five stars.)

"Hank Gola's research of the people and events leading up to Garfield High School's Christmas Day 1939 title game in the newly-built Orange Bowl is as comprehensive as that of any history book I've read. His writing skills make the personalities involved in the big game jump out of the book's pages. As you might expect from a distinguished journalist, Hank's descriptions of the teams' suburban New Jersey and Miami hometowns and life during the Great Depression, before World War II, is fascinating. I almost felt like I was reading a movie script. The people were real, however, as were the forces that brought them together and then apart.

"A story like the one chronicled in City of Champions could never happen again. Too much has changed in the United States and scholastic sports during the past 80 years. Thankfully, Hank Gola made it a labor of love to capture it like it happened with his thorough research and strong writing so we can all enjoy reading it."

Among my favorite parts of the book were the references to Garfield's fierce rivalry with my alma mater, Bloomfield High School. From Hank's book I learned just how powerful and important to the community those Bengals teams coached by Bill Foley were during the 1930s.

Thank you and congratulations, Hank, for authoring such a great book! 

Below: Hank Gola flanked by fellow Garfield H.S. graduate, Roy Pelcher (left) and former Herald-News colleague, Charley Bruns (right)