[geodeticman.5]

Podunk: lol....lol.....-cough- lol lol.... Your range of knowledge in varying sciences and arts never ceases to amaze me Podunk - I did my mental mind's eye hypothesis of this half in jest; half then taken seriously, without looking at the lyrics on purpose. Sounds like...lol... I would have picked-up on the 4-seasons thing there.... I love the comments you made on the -ahem- semi-autobiographical notes there..... I love it.... lol.. brings back some farmer's land adjoiners memories from Ohio for me...

Know what I really like most about that song ?.... stupid thing... but I wish I knew the instrument played, I think its a French Horn, or oboe/bass clarinet d/k even woodwind or brass... but there is a (pardon my ignorance of music theory) riff in the instrumental spots at the beginning and various times through. This one instrument picks up in a solo of sorts after every set of lyrics where he stops singing for several seconds, and it goes intrumental.

That ...one...instrument... brings back another memory for me from Ohio autumns down in Brunswick, a small town out in the country I drove back to after graduating in '76 from Estes in Colorado, and saving $2k working at a lumberyard locally, for my planned Steinbeck/Moon-Blue Highways/Kerouac w/o the weirdness-esque road trip into the New England Autumn, winding up one late afternoon down in Brunswick, Ohio; the perfect autumn day; crisp air after an Indian Summer midday. I was, of course, playing Lightfoot on the car stereo. I distinctly remember playing Seven Islands, Is There Anyone Home, Changes, Crossroads, and my other favourite autumn and on the road songs.

At about 4pm or so , I stopped for a steak ( I'd earned it, labour $), where there was a young woman waiting tables that absolutely entranced me. She could have asked me for my clothes, my boots, and my motorcycle ala T2/the Gubbernator lol j/k - she could have asked me for my car, my credit carD (1), all my money, and everything I brought of value and necessity of mine in the car - camping/climbing gear, very good stereo, books/music/memorabilia/prized collections/special posessions/box of paper and tin etc/ - so to speak of course... I'd been on the road for about 6 weeks by this point - did not know where I was going to plant roots, or at all, what.... open ended agenda.

Scared the hell out of my parents, had not yet decided to go to college, did not know where I wanted to live/work/fill in the blank... and this woman and I connected...not the way my future wife and I did much, much more and permanent- it stuck, with her, but that waitress for ONE DAY was the whole world to me... that day..., but that autumn, that day, that woman, well....driving around in the car later that evening; thinking of her, the SONG played - Pussywillows,Cattails, Soft winds and roses..... and that instrumental riff (?) withthat oboe or french horn playing as I looked at her one more time as I drove away... the two sensory images are forever fused in memory relationally; no pun intended. Isn't it amazing what beautiful music and other poigmant moments that serendipitously come together like that etch indelibly in our memory ? Whenever I hear that song... I see her face..and leave it at that.

About 5 months later, after heading south for the winter to Florida, I finally made my way home on my last dollars of gas. TWO weeks later I met my wife-to-be... and that, THAT, took... Permanent. And her and my 'song', that I will always see/hear/etc Merry by is "Beautiful". And she was, in all ways.

Anyway....

So, I hear ya, except I think yours was humorous and certainly in good taste... I have to think about the logistic points you presented and found logically to be the case in the lyrics versus the metaphors.... very interesting read.... gotta think about that..chew it over some more... Thanks - always interesting and thought-provoking are your reads, Podunk.. Gotta read it again, then ACTUALLY look at the lyrics.

Thanks for sharing that.