Me, I had been working for years traveling along the East Coast painting highways. Yep, i painted the lines that we see everyday in our travels. I worked for a company in VA. that traveled all over the United States (mostly east of the Mississippi) working on rural roads, interstates, cities. It was a time before cell phones, and GPS. A time of paper maps, pay phones, long hours working in the sun. Sometimes I'd be gone a week, sometimes a month or more.Not always easy when you are married with a child. But, it was something I loved to do. I got to see so many places I'd never have seen otherwise. Places off the beaten path. Long lonely stretches of highway driving a truck going 5-7 mph.
But anyway, back to Stan and Kate. I'm not sure which one i met first or if it even matters. But without them those roads would have been even longer. Stan was to die in an Airplane accident in 1983. Smoke inhalation, yet his music lives on and still reminds me of the longing, the wanderlust, the journey, the coming home, and the leaving.
The pictures he could paint.
Like her's, my strength was young and hard as steel.
And like her too, I knew my ground;
I scarcely felt the years go round
In answer to the wheel.
But then they quenched the fire beneath the boiler,
Gave me a watch and showed me out the door.
At sixty-four, you're still the best;
One year more, and then you're less
Than dust upon the floor.
And like her too, I knew my ground;
I scarcely felt the years go round
In answer to the wheel.
But then they quenched the fire beneath the boiler,
Gave me a watch and showed me out the door.
At sixty-four, you're still the best;
One year more, and then you're less
Than dust upon the floor.
And when you were feeling down this would perk you up as you sang at the top of your lungs.
And though I never met him in person, he sat with me and sang me songs on those long empty roads
I never got into Stan, didn't know of him for a long time, but having seen his brother, Garnet, several times, and meeting him one of those times, I became a huge fan of his music. He's funny, too, and always puts on a great show, although I must say, it's been a few years since I've seen one. I fear I've become too much of a homebody. :)
ReplyDeleteI can certainly understand why that job appealed to you, anything that offered an open road....
It was an interesting life. Sometimes scary sometimes boring as can be. Imagine a week of rain in the middle of nowhere in some squalid little motel not making any money. It could be dangerous cause you are playing in traffic. It's a unique work experience and not for most people. It's the travel or the 14 hour days that take their toll. But the experiences of a place different made it all worthwhile.
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