The Hindenburg

Commentator Joe Pacheco is a retired New York City school superintendent. He wrote the following poem about seeing the Hindenburg before it met its fateful end.

Where Were You on May 6, 1937?

In the late afternoon
pounding the pink "Spaldeen" ball
between the screened windows
of the Telephone Building on 13th Street
in our slum version of handball,
my friend Danny and I looked up
and saw the Hindenburg,
immense shining silver
shaped like a cigar
floating directly above us
so close
Danny threw the "Spaldeen" up
as high as he could to try to hit it
but of course he missed
and we both laughed…

later I heard
it crashed in Jersey
and the whole next day
everyone listened
to the announcer on the radio
sobbing and I remember thinking
radio announcers are always cool
but not this time
so this must be real
and later that week at the movies
they showed it in the Newsreel,
the Hindenburg collapsing
like a huge balloon on fire
and people burning and screaming
as they tried to jump
and my mother and the women
in the audience crying,
right then I wished that Danny
had been able to hit it with the ball
and changed its course —-
maybe that would have saved it.
Copyright 2005 by Joseph Pacheco

Thirty-six people died that day ... but the people who stayed in the Hindenburg survived. I never knew that before today. The fire burst past them, and they didn't jump to get away from it. And they lived.