5 Things: Library Closed 'Til 1 PM, Great American Songbook at the Beech

1. The Belmont Public Library will be closed from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a staff development training. The library will open for the rest of its day, until 5 p.m. FYI: the library is now closed on Sunday's until the fall. 

2. Belmont High School Baseball (11-9) will be traveling to the North Shore to take on hosts the Beverly High School Panthers (15-5) at 4:30 p.m. in first round action in the Division 2 North Sectional.

3. You'll hear it all at the Chenery Middle School auditorium at 7 p.m. as the 5th Grade Band, Orchestra and Chorus will be holding their annual spring concert. And, as with yesterday's 7th and 8th grades concert, the concert is in an air-conditioned hall. 

4. Singer-guitarist Ron Goldman will be using many musical styles with equal persuasiveness in his performance of popular standards and show tunes from the Great American Songbook at the Beech Street Center at 1:15 p.m.

5. On this day in 1819, the great American poet Walt Whitman – the father of free verse – was born on Long Island, New York. 

 I Hear America Singing. (1860)

    I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, 
    Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe 
              and strong, 
    The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, 
    The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off 
              work, 
    The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck- 
              hand singing on the steamboat deck, 
    The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing 
              as he stands, 
    The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morn- 
              ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown, 
    The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, 
              or of the girl sewing or washing, 
    Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, 
    The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young 
              fellows, robust, friendly, 
    Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.