Wed, 06/02/2021 - 17:59

Sarah Thompson

Mayor Ed Glaser, left, hands over the key to the City to lifelong Rockland resident Ervin Robinson. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

Mayor Ed Glaser, left, hands over the key to the City to lifelong Rockland resident Ervin Robinson. (Photo by Sarah Thompson)

(Photo by Sarah Thompson)

ROCKLAND — June is now Driving Old Memories month in Rockland, courtesy of a former boy from “The Point.”

Ervin Robinson, whose music video of his hometown has been viewed more than 24,000 times by viewers through the span of 11 years, has been presented with a key to the City, a certificate of proclamation, and the month of June.

Mayor Ed Glaser Robinson presented him with a “key” to the City, Wednesday, June 2, 2021 in a small, informal gathering outside City Hall. City Councilor Louise MacLellan-Ruf, City Manager Tom Luttrell, and Robinson’s wife, son, and grandson also attended.

“It means a lot to us,” said Mayor Ed Glaser, “and it means a lot to the people of Rockland to have a song like that.”

Glaser had previously attempted to generate a Council order declaring Robinson’s Driving Old Memories as the official Rockland song.

Eleven years ago, Robinson sat in his son’s living room, singing the song that he wrote and that his son musically engineered and recorded.

He doesn’t get royalties, but Robinson shared that his favorite part of having the video is bringing it to the senior facilities and watching the residents view the landmarks they’ve called home. His home.

“I just love it here,” he said. “I was born here.”

Robinson, a retired police officer from 1967, was born and raised on “The Point” aka Tillson Avenue, back when children ran amok through a neighborhood no longer visible except on old maps – where running water didn’t exist, trolley cars ventured, and horses drank from fountains.

“Can you imagine coming from that environment to this today?”

Because of the video, Robinson has garnered a bit of local recognition. While walking on Main Street one day, about three or four years after he’d retired, Robinson was approached by a person on a bike. The person rode past, turned around, rode back and said, “Are you the guy in the video about the Rockland, Maine song?” said Robinson.

Robinson said yes.

“He said, ‘we love Rockland so much, and that song, that we moved here from New York,’” said Robinson.