Crimson And Clover

"Ahh..My my such a sweet thing...Crimson and clover.." I was crazy about that song.I remember listening to it at night on WLS from Chicago, when I lived in Monterey Tenn. my best friend larry poteet, and I used to sit in his Uncle's black, 2door,57 chevy, and listen to the radio for hours on the weekends, and during summer..Every night. Am radio was our window on the world.

I got a call from him one day letting me know Tommy James &the Shondells were coming to Cookeville."They're going to play at Tech, man" He told me. (Tennessee Technological University...a fine school, whose engineers have worked with NASA on several occasions) Long story made longer..We copped tickets that week.

We got decked out in our hippy best clothes..bellbottom jeans tie dye t-shirt, and brown suede vest, and headed over to Tech. At five o clock in the afternoon. The concert started at seven. We checked out the auditorium, and our seats, and still had too much time on our hands so we went to Tech billards. A popular hippy hang-out across from the campus.

We shot a few games of pool, and were just leaving when this tall lanky guy came strolling in. Since we were both in the doorway at the same time we exchanged hellos, and ended up striking up a conversation. He smoked a marlboro, and asked if we were students. (high praise for highschool boys) He asked if we were going to the concert, and said "You like those guys? I don't listen to them much."

So we parted company with him ,and made our way to the gym. It was filling up fast as we made our way to our seats. The lights went down,and a local radio anouncer came out, and said. "ladies, and gentlemen please welcome Roulette recording artists..TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS!!!!!!

And there he stood. Onstage in front of the Shondells...The guy we had been talking to at the pool hall. Tommy James




joe said that.

Treasure!!

I had been looking for this little book for decades. I haunted the Little Golden Book racks in stores for years. I went through dozens of second hand bookstores. Prowled my local ones repeatedly. Found Man from U.N.C.L.E. books I didn't have. Found dozens of A. Bertram Chandler books. I accumulated a library of Louie L' Amour westerns. But this little book remained a treasured memory. A memory of sitting on my Mother's lap. Safe. happy. Loved. As she read..."too-too-too bad" He tooted softly."He'll have to be taught a lesson."
I can see her face, hear her voice as she read it to me, showing me the pictures of the yellow diesel chasing his own caboose around, and around the tall thin hill in Tinytown. She never seemed to tire of reading it to me. I remember her arms around me. Her brown curly hair. I have her brown eyes. She used to draw me bunnies.


One of the things my Kacy girl, and I used to do every saturday was to prowl the second hand bookstore, and antique shops around Cedar Street. And then one day there it was! I reconized it immediately, but only dared to hope..My hands trembling I opened it and began to read...YES!!! YES!!! I shouted. I jumped up, and down. My daughter Kacy said "You have to get it Daddy." She took it from my hand, and headed for the cash register. I followed her looking at the sparse collection of "presidential flashcards" in my wallet. Would I be able to afford this treasure? I had a vision of the store owner saying. "That will be $250.00 sir..It's quite rare."
When she rung up $2.50 I felt positively giddy. I had it out of the bag, and was reading it, before we got out the door.
It's in my fifty-five year old hands right now. "Clear the tracks! Clear the tracks! Get out of my way old clickety-clacks!"
I close the cover as a happy tear escapes my mother's brown eyes. My heart is five years old again.

Moving The Heavens, And The Earth

Several years ago Lori, Kacy's mom, had a trailer. It was next to a farm, with woods, rolling pasture land, and a huge pond. It was heaven. I lived there with her and the girls for awlile. It was the happiest days of my life. For awhile.
I was in the back yard by my fire pit, sitting with a cup of coffee,and my binoculars, waiting for the big full moon to clear a line of tulip poplars. Kacy was with daddy, as she always was at that age. She was chasing lightening bugs one minute, observing my every move the next. Daddy's girl.To kacy I was ten feet tall, and the final athority on any subject known to man.

A few weeks earlier my little angel had seen the moon for the first time through my binoculars. She watched it sailing along with us all the way home, and was convinced after that ,that the moon "followed her everywhere she went."

I scanned the treeline with my biniculars again. I could see the huge yellow moon through the tops of the trees. it wouldn't be long now.While Sipping my coffee I noticed my Kacy girl , hands on hips looking at the tree line too. Then she backed up a few feet, stood , hands on hips again looking intently at the moon in the trees.

After repeating this manuver three times she beamed at me." There you go Daddy." She said proudly. " I moved the moon for you so you can see it with your noculars."

Eyes swimming with tears I glanced over her shoulder at the bright full moon just skimming the trees.

*********************************

I couldn't embed the version of this song with the daughter. But the lyrics are there. This goes out to my Kacy girl, and to all my friends, with an American child.....

In The Outback

I love it out there. There are so many trees on our small lot that it gives the illusion of being in the woods. My Dad's metal chair under the pines has become my place. I love to take my Bible there, and read, and talk to the Lord. I go out there almost every morning now, with my coffee, and enjoy the quiet of the morning.
I was standing talking to grandfather tree(that tall skinny thing in the middle of the sunlight)the other day. It was around noon, the sun was warm on my face, and that wonderfull lusty feeling of just being glad to be alive, washed over me. I looked down on the dappled sunlight in the grass, and there was my Domino boy. He was splayed on his side, wallowing in the warm sunshine, neading the air with his front paws, smiling up at me with his eyes half closed...We grokked.