That’s one of my all-time favorite songs. “Lizzie and the Rainman” by Tanya Tucker.
When I was little my dad would tell me poems by heart and we would always be listening to music. Good, good songs. I think as a kid you don’t always get the whole message, but certain things stick with you and that phrase always has… with that deep, strong beat, “Step back non-believers or the rain will never come, someone start that fire burning, somebody beat the drum, he said, ‘Some may think I’m crazy for making all these claims, but I swear before this day is over, you folks, you gonna see some rain.’”
Somehow, I got it in my head at a very young age that you could make stuff happen – just tell the nay-sayers to back off and get to work. However, that happened it’s been a good lesson and served me well. Other than my slightly colorful reputation with some who “think I’m crazy.”
There was also a poem that subtly shaped me and my ability to withstand the cold, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” recited at length on long cattle drives or horse-trading trips. I may have come this way – with a deep, deep aversion to chilly temperatures of any type, but if we’re sticking with the theme, Robert Service and Joe Dahl may have had more to do with this than anything.
Sitting on the front porch with Dad the other day I confessed I don’t think I can do another winter. As Sam McGee from Tennessee said, wisely, “he’d sooner live in hell.”
Surely there is a place I can go to on November first where there are balmy skies and fast internet. I honestly don’t know why we can’t run the paper from the beach until May first when it’s safe to come back and plant a garden here. And my children wouldn’t have to ride in the car with me and my heater running like the furnace roar of the “Alice May.”
My little SloanieBelle has the music/poetry gene like her grampa. She is now the self-appointed maestro of my life, introducing me to new songs and the beautiful poetry of our modern life. She made me an Amazon Warrior playlist with tons of powerful women songs. I had to add Helen Ready who our mom used to play for us. “I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore…”
Sloanie hadn’t heard it ever and was properly impressed. In her Gen Z language that I do not understand, approved righteously, saying, “Slay, Queen.”
What a funny world – surrounded by the art that shapes us and those who share it with us. The messages we communicate when we say to someone, “Hey, listen to this…” So while we google old poetry lyrics and practice the lines of the Jabberwocky, we’ll be right here…
…Keeping you Posted.
Rach
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