Posted on 09/16/2006 5:58:25 PM PDT by Nita Nupress
Hey, I already told my Erick, OK, story last week! Forgot about Lefty, though. Didn't forget Sheb.
*Hey, Mister Purple People Eater, don't eat me!*
It was a one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people-eater ...
Oh no, I can't do this one; can't remember all the variations on flying. "Sure looked good to me."
... high from the highest tree ...
woman, would you weep for me?
blup, blup, blup ... (guitar sounds)
Well here I sit high, gettin' ideas ...
Ain't nothing but a fool would live like this ...
Out all night and runnin' wild ...
Woman sittin' home with a month-old child.
Dang me! Dang me!
They oughta take a rope and hang me ...
High from the highest tree ...
Woman, would you weep for me?
Just sittin' around drinkin' with the rest of the guys,
Six rounds were bought, and I bought five ...
Spent the groceries and half the rent ...
Lacked 14 dollars of havin' 27 cents ...
Dang me! Dang me!
They oughta take a rope and hang me ...
High from the highest tree ...
Woman, would you weep for me?
Now, they say roses are red and violets are purple,
Sugar is sweet and so is maple surple ...
And I'm the seventh out of seven son ...
My pappy was a pistol, I'm a son of a gun.
Dang me! Dang me!
They oughta take a rope and hang me ...
High from the highest tree ...
Woman, would you weep for me?
Blup, blup, blup, blllblup ...
Oops, sorry. Already singing along with the tunes in my mind.
I drove my parents completely and totally out of their skulls on a very long road trip back east the summer I was 14, making Daddy run the radio "up and down the dial" to find every instance of "Dang Me" being played - all the way from Oklahoma to Niagara Falls and back. Weeks on end.
Fast forward. In Daddy's later days, one of the first tapes he bought for the car was ... Roger Miller's Greatest Hits. Lol, full circle. (I say "one of" because Miss Patsy Cline's greatest always came first.)
I'm so very ashamed of you people. You didn't even catch that today, September 16, is the 3rd anniversary of Sheb Wooley passing away. Especially YOU, okie. You should know these things.
POP QUIZ: What day of the week this week did Johnny Cash pass away?
Even though I've seen the sign numerous times, I always discounted it because I truly thought Lefty was really "for real" from Saginaw, Michigan.
Possibly the son of a Saginaw fisherman, but that part didn't matter.
After my dad got a speeding ticket in the speed trap of Saginaw, Texas (where the big grain elevators were by the RR tracks), while on one of our numerous road trips, that was our song when anywhere near Foat Wuth.
Now, thousands of people live there and the speedway is there ... but back then, it was an empty highway coming in from Oklahoma and those were the biggest "buildings" on the horizon - those grain elevators.
Then we'd smell the stockyards and know we were almost to FW.
Jim Ed Brown? Of "the Browns," right? The Three Bells. Little Jimmy Brown.
Oh, that song makes me weep ..
"From the village, hidden deep in the valley ... one rainy morning, dark and gray ... a soul winged its way to heaven ... Jimmy Brown had passed away ... bom bom bom bom ...
...and the little congregation .. .. prayed for guidance from above ... lead us not into temptation ... may his soul find the salvation ... of Thy great eternal love."
"But you can be happy, if you've a mind to!"
Well, I guess somebody bombed something somewhere and everyone went to another thread to read about it.
*oh, well* I'll finish. My daddy's good friend was dating Dottie not long before she died. They all went to some football games together, but I never met her.
I did meet Lefty's son, David, and Dottie's daughter, Shelley, in Branson once - the year they had such a hit (in our parts) of "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma." Also loved their "Texas State of Mind." Never ran into them again.
There, I think I'm done now. I've "sung" both of those on the forum before.
You can keep talking. I'm listening. :)
I loved the man, and his music. His death was a great loss to the music world and his fans.
Thank you for the wonderful book review! You told me I'd hear more about the book, and here it is!
I have no way to get my hands on the book (long story), so I hope someone somewhere will tell me what the fight between Tompall and Waylon was about. If it's something I already knew but forgot, then I'll just ... well, be disappointed, I guess.
I know how hard it was to get Hag to sit down for an interview. I arranged one of the few he ever gave. Had a huge crush on him for a while, too - just a "friend crush" type of thing. He's much nicer than people give him (or he gives himself) credit for.
Sounds like the book is a great read, so maybe it'll magically appear on my doorstep some time or something. I was a big Roger Miller fan and didn't know "the rest of the story" about his life.
Thank you again!
I can remember those Saginaw elevators, too. Lived in Foat Wuth back in the early fifties, but went back and forth to Oklahoma a lot on Hwy 81.
After Decatur, the next thing you looked for were those elevators. And that is all there was...
Abso-bloomin'-lutely the *only* thing along that stretch, with Boss Hawg hidin' behind the filling station.
LOL, remember the "Eighter from Decatur" signs at both ends of town? That was after Bowie and Fruitland - I've even written about those on FR - about Wagonseller's and all the produce stands.
Hwy 81 - think how many business execs in this world have had to make that same trek in someone's limo or nice car, from the evil Halliburton offices in Duncan to DFW (those that didn't fly private).
My trek on 81 was back and forth to northern Oklahoma (Medford, north of Enid) -- all the way on 81. Back in the fifties, it took all friggin' day. You left at dawn and, coming South, the sun usually set around Bowie.
It's been my observation that there is almost incestuous relationship between Hwy 81 and red beer.
Up and down the entire extent of 81 -- from Pembina, ND to Laredo -- 90% of the red beer consumed in the United States is consumed within fifty miles on either side of Hwy 81.
There is "The Bible Belt". And then there is "The Red Beer Suspender"...
I haven't been thru there in quite a while, but yes, the signs were still there last time. I just tried to find a pic for you in an online search, but no luck - guess that's a "snake eyes" instead of a "square eighter," lol.
Medford, huh? I know the area, but not really well. The mental picture I have is of huge combines, both in the fields and on the highway (always in front of me, lol.)
That means you went through Chickasha, though, which was my dad's hometown. I lived farther east in OK and also in OKC, at various times.
Red beer? I don't know about that. Is it Bloody Mary mix and beer - I don't drink either one, so I've missed that! Sounds like it follows red dirt around, though!
From my tired old mem-ry:
En-ga-lund swings like a pendulum do
Bobbies on by-sickles,
Two by two
Westminster abby
the tower of Big Ben
the rosy red cheeks of the little chil-dren...
It's extremely interesting. I got it at the library, so I don't have it on the shelf. Like watching a train wreck, sometimes - he was very honest.
I'm with you there. Picked it up 30 years later and STILL knew every word on that album.
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