SOOTHING SPIRIT OF SONG AND POETRY.

Goethe said:  One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words.

Music is all around us, rowers still chant and call their strokes, campers sing around the fire, auctioneers and street vendors, sing to sell their wares, mothers sing to their children, father's too. Protestors sing on the picket lines.  Music comforts the sick and weary and inspires writers, and thinkers and all of us to grander effort, or a lighter mood. Music wafts through stores and elevators, and one is never far from television and radio. And, music for the most part is poetry.

I've been rummaging around in folk anthologies about working people's songs.
Most of us can remember Sixteen Tons,  Eight Hours, The Old Chisholm Trail.
I got caught up in the music and forgot they were real men working real jobs and suffering exploitation by the "company."  I knew Sixteen Tons was about back-breaking work at a low pay day after day where the coal miner was unable to get out of the trap of indebtedness. Employers knew how to set up that invisible net to keep them in that trap.

And, of course, I'm familiar with the happy sounds of Ty Yi Yippy, Yippy, Yea... of the Old Chisholm Trail .  Somehow I didn't hear or remember the other verses of the song that  make the exploitation clear. The boss can fire you on a whim and dock your pay if he sees fit and they always did.

A-ropeing and a-tying and a-branding all day,
I'm working mighty hard for mighty little pay,
I went to the boss to draw my roll,
He had me figured out ten dollars in the hole.
The boss says to me, "I'll fire you,
Not only you but the whole damn crew."
We organized a union and it's going mighty strong,
The boss minds his business and we all get along."

The song, Eight Hours was a rallying song from the late nineteenth century when people worked from sun-up to sun-set, the whole year, no vacations, no time off, no cushion against illness. Unions made things better, but young people today, don't recognize what they owe to unions and in some ways, our middle class is working very hard for low wages,often both parents, and not getting ahead. I see some similarities.
The song says:
We mean to make things over, we are tired of toil for naught,
With but bare enough to live upon and never and hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine and we want to smell the flowers,
We are sure that God has will'd it, and we mean to have eight hours.
We're summoning our forces from the shipyard , shop and mill,
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what we will.

Carpenters won an 8-hour day in 1890, but it took decades before the majority of workers won a shorter work day.
For me it was a repeat education and a reminder of what we owe unions and a treatise on the power of the people when they are maligned.

I'VE BEEN EVERYWHERE, MAN...

I received a message from Jerry  at http://overthetopcargotrailer.blogspot.com 
about the song I’ve Been Everywhere.


He sent me to a web page where there are parodies and take-offs on that song by  different artists.  I listened to a slew of them.  They were pretty cool.  Click on the links to hear some I got a kick out of.
The first is I’ve Been Everywhere , Texas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaTJxS_mu8c&feature=related

This link is:  I’ve Been Everywhere, Austrailia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UAh7ogwAYQ&feature=related

Now we have a Johnny Cash parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UAh7ogwAYQ&feature=related
The next one is:  I’ve Been Everywhere, Minnesota. I think. It has some clever, corny stuff like I ate corn dogs at the fair, man, …in my underwear, man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BynH5WYdX2A&feature=related
After I  identified five to put into this blog , swish, the sneaky electronic Genie has tossed one of them into cyberspace, so I’m hoping that the four I have left  are identified correctly.
When I mentioned the song two days ago,  I was talking about my partner, Jim. And,  just to give you an idea of why it fits,  he has crossed the United States 6 times in his Motor Home. He has been in every state of the union. Plus, he took his rig 17,000 miles across Mexico, through every country in Central America and to the Panama Canal and beyond, (until the road stopped.)  Then, of course, he returned those same, many miles back to the States. He’s traveled all over Canada as well.  (South America is still on the agenda.)

Yesterday was a pick up and move, empty tanks, fill up with water, get gas and propane, find the recycle place,  shop for groceries…that  kind of day. We bought two sets of sheets and replaced the butter-soft thin ones we had. I spotted a Burlington Coat Outlet and got a white jacket to replace my warn one.  We’ve been everywhere, man- in Yuma!

The frig is full and we are parked in a weedy little town at a VFW with a huge membership. The bartender told us they serve around 400 hamburgers on Mondays. Tuesday was women’s dart competition and men’s pool tournament. They are open and busy seven days a week. We had a drink and left early because they allow members to smoke in the bar. Nobody was smoking at the time, but we both came out with our hair and clothing stinking  like old cigarette smoke.
The move put us closer to our destination, the Petroglyphs.

Changing Lifestyle

Lifestyle changes can be stressful and enjoyable, both at the same time. Traditionally a light sleeper, as in 6 to 7 hours each night, I now find I can sleep for 8 and 9 hours and still nod off while reading. Stress reduction is a major benefit of being gone from home and just "ramblin".
I listened to a hoot owl in the night and woke up to a tiny rabbit out the window in the morning instead of the traffic on Pennsylvania Gulch or a blaring telephone. In fact, we are out of cell range at this site and won't have phone service again until Dec. 13th. The disconnect is nice.
My companion wrote three books on his RV trip to Panama and all sites in between. Excerpts on his Seattle blog-http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/ramblinman but this morning I met a man who published 4 books on WWII and is working on a 5th. Another who publishes songs that he writes through a Canadian Company.
A woman who spent a career with the airlines told me travel gets in your blood and you can't stay home. She and her husband are full time RV-ers. Its a culture of its own.
I see a book coming!
Happy Birthday, Jim.