Toward the end of the evening Rennee Gershen read a poem that circulates around the internet. Her reading and enthusaism were outstanding. The poem follows:

The Land That Made Me ME

Long ago and far away,
In a land that time forgot,
Before the day of Dylan
Or the dawn of Camelot
There lived a race of innocents
And they were you and me.

Ike was in the White House
In that land where we were born
Where navels were for oranges
And Peyton Place was porn.

We learned to drive in drivers-ed
Washed our hair at dawn
We spread our crinolines to dry
In circles, on the lawn.

We longed for love and romance
And waited for our prince
And Eddie Fisher married Liz
And no one's seen him since.

We danced to Little Darlin'
And sang to Stagger Lee
And cried for Buddy Holly
In the land that made me ME.

Only girls wore earrings then
We wore two, but never three
And only in our wildest dreams
Did we expect to see
A boy named George with lipstick
In the land that made me ME.

We had our share of heroes
We never thought they'd go
At least not Bobby Darin
Or Marilyn Monroe.

For youth was still eternal
And life was yet to be
And Elvis was forever
In the land that made me ME.

We'd never seen a rock band
That was Grateful to be Dead
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson
And Zepplins were not Led.

And Beatles lived in gardens then
And Monkeys lived in trees
And Madonna was Mary
In the land that made me ME.

We never heard of microwaves
Or telephones in cars
And babies might be bottle fed
But they weren't grown in jars.

Pumping iron was to get the wrinkles out
And "gay" meant fancy-free
Texting was for school books
In the land that made me ME.

We hadn't seen enough of jets
To talk about the lag
And microchips were what was left
At the bottom of the bag.

Buicks came with portholes
And side-shows came with freaks
And bathing suits were big enough
To cover both your cheeks!!

Coke came just in bottles
Bytes came from a flea
Twitter was a bird song
In the land that made me ME.

We never saw only ONE movie
And water was always free
They never mentioned bodily dysfunctions
On prime-time TV.

And middle age was 35
And old was fifty three
And ancient were our grandparents
In the land that made me ME.

But all things have a season
Or so we've heard them say
Now instead of Maybelline
It's Botox and Retin-A.

They send us invitations
To join AARP
It's sure a long way baby
From the land that made me ME.

So now we face a new tech world
In slightly larger jeans
And wonder why they're using
Smaller print in magazines.

And we tell our children's children
Of the way it used to be
Long ago and far away
In the land that made me ME.