Saturday, January 25, 2014

Johnny Cash-The Last Great American / Documentary on BBC 2004



Johnny Cash

google surfing, came up with this tear jerking heartfelt documentary
about Johnny Cash...wow...so well done I felt like I could post this Saturday am EST.
That way you might listen all weeked...
There, plans fall into place.
Blogger Serendipity.
You might spool it up and find the meaning of life in 
John's passionate journey,
full throttle,
never looking back, well, never dwelling there.
Hearing Rosanne Cash sing River & a Thread really hits home.
I grew up near the convergance of the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Illinois Rivers,
none of them sissy rivers.
They were the interstate highways of yesteryear.
They still affect...well...everything in the Midwest.
The water tells you whether your crops will grow, wither or drown,
whether your house is 6 feet under,
or where you work, what you do. My Uncle Jay worked on the locks and I got to see them.
When I was invited to a friend's camp on the Illinois river I jumped off the dock. Everyone yelled at me to get out. I was a terrible swimmer but got by. What is it?
"Never jump in without tying a rope to your waist so we can pull you out if the undertow takes you..."
Oh man, I never went back in that docile looking beast.



My uncle Cliff Schaeffer was a very cool guy, a barber who lived in Hartford, Illinois.
He married my Great Aunt Ruth who was my grandfather Carls' baby sister.
She has the kindest aura and I felt so safe in her arms.She was a teacher.
Cliff worked hard to memorialize the area he lived in-
which became home to 
refineries, lots of them.
The sunsets over the refineries often stunning and surreal. Dad worked at Shell for
awhile but it near killed him. God knows what chemistry 
he inhaled there on top of cigarettes of the day.
Cliff helped pave the way for the Lewis & Clark memorial at the beginning of the journey.
They have a nice mueseum there now, in Hartford.
The river talk got me thinking about the rivers in my life.
Threads another subject for another day....
Johnny's music certainly a thread through this post,
his daughter led me to find this documentary,
which pulled me back home.
Always a thread tied to my heart,
pulling,
pulling,
When I went to college,
 Kadi's well worn Johnny cash record,
we played over and over again...

"I hear that train a comin',
it's rollin' 'round the bend,
and I ain't seen the sunshine
Since, I don't know when...." 
by Johnny Cash,
Folsom Prison Blues





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