Just a poor white sharecroppers chow,
I was sitting on the concrete stoop in front of my duplex drinking a brew and rebuilding a 4 barrel carburetor in a paint roller pan half full of gasoline. Parts were all over the place, gas spilled everywhere and it was hot as all get out in the summer of 1983 in southwest FL.
Got out of jail 2 weeks prior and still hadn’t got paid from my new job so I was a broke dik dawg, bad! I had a cheap boom boxed hooked up to a guitar amp and was cranking a cassette tape by 38 special and the song “Hold On Loosely” was playing, when an angel appeared before my very eyes.
Long blonde hair, nice tan, and legs that went all the way up. She stood in front of me with her hands on her hips and said, “I can almost hear your music all the way over at my place.” I didn’t hear a word she said, I just stared and my mouth was probably hanging open. After a second or 2 I asked, “Er, uh, what did you say?” She chuckled lightly and asked if she could watch what I was doing. I was numb from the neck up and don’t remember what I said as she sat cross legged on the grass a few feet out in front of me. I gathered my wits and asked her if she wanted a beer and she said she didn’t drink. I asked her if she wanted a glass of water or a coke and she said a coke would be good, so I jumped up and ran in to get one out of the fridge.
Yes, I ran! Already I couldn’t stand to be away from her.
I was trying to put this Holley carburetor back together while chit chatting with her and I never was a good multitasker. After about half an hour of doing it half wrong at half the speed I told her I’ll need to go get a manual and finish it up later. I asked her if she wanted to get something to eat after I get cleaned up and she said “Sure.”, and I told her she would have to drive and she said that was OK.
Less than an hour into it and I was already knowing she was gonna be my wife. There’d been a lot of traffic on this highway and I’d felt like this before, many times, but this time was different some how….
I was a wild eyed southern boy.
Your baby needs someone to believe in.
And a whole lot of space to breathe in.
So hold on loosely, but don’t let go.
If you cling too tightly, you’re gonna lose control.
youtube dot com/watch?v=vJtf7R_oVaw
Back in 1993 a young woman from the midwest came out to the west coast to do volunteer work at a care home for old folks. I met her at a church youth group and thought she was a nice girl but I was 40 and she was 25. After a year someone mention that this Indiana farm girl would like to earn a little extra money working on a farm so I hired her to run a baler for the summer of ’95. Now I’m a little slow to get a clue, but after several people encouraged me to not let this one get away I finally asked her out in the fall of “95. It will be 28 years together this November. Three sons and I am blessed beyond my dreams. We were married at a church in rural Lagrange county Indiana. There were almost more Amish buggies than cars in the parking lot.
Both lovely stories, so well told.
Grand-dad was 3 years older than his mother-in-law. Never could get anyone in the family to spill the beans on that one. Anyone that knew has long ago passed on. He was 45, grandma was 22. She loved him until the day she died, long after he passed.
1983 I was all of 18. I recall rebuilding a Rochester spreadbore downstairs in my room.
First time I saw my wife to be was 2002 in the PI. She was standing on a curb outside the factory we both worked at. Petite, wearing a modest khaki skirt, long black shiny hair and beautiful Asian eyes. She smiled at me as I walked by. Too dumb to stop and talk to her at the moment, my next mission was to figure out who she was. Took a while in a factory of 14,000. Mission accomplished. Married 21 years now.
Can’t go wrong with 38 Special.
That’s right. I’ve seen em in concert 5-6 times and always thought of them as Skynyrd II