Dear Henry

We went to see Bruce Springsteen this weekend in New Jersey with Pamela and Jeffrey. It was the first time I've driven up there without you and without going to Hackensack. At the concert there were a lot of mommies and daddies with their kids. I kept looking at this little girl, who was just a little older than you. She was sitting (standing, really) with her mom. All I could think of was you. To make me really miss you the band played one of your favorite songs. How'd they know to do that?



SEVEN NIGHTS TO ROCK
(Moon Mullican)

I got seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll
Seven nights, I'm gonna have a whirl
Seven nights with a different girl
Seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll

Monday, at sister Suzy's ball
Tuesday, at the old dance hall
Wednesday, at the road house inn
Thursday, at the lion's den
Friday, at the chatter box
Saturday and Sunday, everybody rocks

Seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll
Seven nights, I'm gonna have a whirl
Seven nights with a different girl
Seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll

I got seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll
I got seven nights, I'm gonna show my face
With a different chick and in a different place
Seven nights to rock
Seven nights to roll

Monday, I'm gonna rock with Jane
Tuesday, it's gonna be Lorraine
Wednesday, I'm taking Nancy Lee
Thursday, it's Betty Lou and me
Friday, I'm gonna jive with Sue
Saturday and Sunday, any chick will do

Seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll
Seven nights, I'm gonna show my face
With a different chick and in a different place
Seven nights to rock
I got seven nights to roll

It really rocked. Do you remember how you and I would play it over and over again in the car to learn the names of all the girls. I don't think we singing it exactly right, but who cares. We listened to the BR-549 version and I never got a chance to play you the one done by Nick Lowe. I know you loved this song because it sounded a lot like Out of Habit by BR-549.

You would have loved the whole concert. I can see you dancing. In her eulogy, Mom compared life with you to an encore at a Bruce Springsteen concert.

After the concert we stayed in a hotel right near the town where I used to live when I was a little boy, Old Bridge, New Jersey. The next morning we went out for Dunkin Donuts. A woman asked for a small box of Munchkins. I thought that was funny. Of course I could only think of the Dunkin Donuts across the street from The Joker's Child in Fairlawn where we would go when you were in the hospital in Hackensack. I wonder how Dr. Gillio is doing. It has been a long time.

I miss you my munchkin man.