Every Spring I grab a pillow case, some headphones and a mini- CD player that I can put in my pocket. I drive my truck around crooked gravel roads and past cattle farms, where the new spring calves frolic and play in the deep green pastures of Pike County, Illinois.
As I listen to Lightfoot's powerful voice soothe my soul I spot a dead elm tree along side the road. It's slipped it's bark and the wild flowers grow near it's trunk. I park my pick-up and pop Summertime Dream into
my CD player and slip it into my pocket.
I step carefully into the woods and proceed towards the dead elm tree. As I draw closer and closer my eyes are searching. My search ends when I spot a pale yellow morrell mushroom next to the dead tree bark. It's delicate and spongey top is a sight to behold!!!
As I reach down to pick it. I spot two more!
Then I see five more! They are everywhere!!!
After about thirty minutes of being in my own world I've exhausted my spot and can find no more. I leave the woods with a half-full pillowcase and batteries that need replacing.
I get in my truck and follow a different road home than the one I took to get there.
New sights and sounds and new Lightfoot music. I listen to Pony Man, past Donnie Guthrie's horse farm and I think how nice it would be to own my own horse some day. I think I'll get a white and black painted horse and call him "SUNDANCER".
I listen to Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and think about how scared the men aboard must have been and how their families probably kept hope alive until it was confirmed that she went to the bottom.
Soon I pull in my driveway with a half pillowcase full of wild mushrooms! What a treat! My little girl jumps into my arms as I walk in the door and asks, "Did you find any?" My wife gives me a kiss and and welcomes me home and reminds me to clean up my mess when I clean them.
This is a true story about a spring tradition
of mine that I will try to continue as long as the Lord will allow me to walk this Earth.
It's about getting back in touch with nature after a long cold winter. AND GORDON LIGHTFOOT AND HIS MUSIC ARE WITH ME EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. I just wanted to share this with everyone because GL is part of my everyday existance. I can honestly say my life is enhanced greatly by his songs and their meaning in my life.
Just a Lightfoot Fan,
Titan
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