Day 13. Things get complicated when you get past eighteen

So, I don't know if you've noticed but I might listen to a little bit of country radio once in awhile.

The local station I listen to has an oldies show Sunday mornings from 7-9am, and then they repeat the same show Sunday evenings from 7-9pm (followed by an hour of poke-your-eye-out bluegrass fun). This means that on the Sundays that I am home, I wake up to some terrible twangy screeching voice on the radio. Or, if I've been away for the weekend, I usually get to drive home listening to some terrible twangy screeching voice on the radio.

Now, don't get me wrong, there is a great deal of really great classic country out there. But I'm pretty sure that this particular radio show mostly plays songs that didn't even make the charts back when they were first released.

I heard a real classy one tonight by Dolly Parton which I had never heard before. It was called 'Bargain Store':

My life is likened to a bargain store
And I may have just what you're lookin' for
If you don't mind the fact that all the merchandise is used
But with a little mending it could be as good as new

The bargain store is open come inside
You can easily afford the price
Love is all you need to purchase all the merchandise
And I will guarantee you'll be completely satisfied

Wow, Dolly, wow. You just don't get that sort of metaphor in song lyrics anymore.

But anyway... The title of today's blog actually comes from a Statler Brother Song. This is a photo that I took of the Statler Brothers on the red carpet at the Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony in Nashville Tennessee last June. It was pretty much awesome! Well, its 3 of the 4; the 4th guy was hidden behind that bald dude there with the microphone.

Now, if you know anything about the Statler Brothers, there is one guy in the band who has this very deep, deep low voice and when he sang his verse in the song, I almost cracked up laughing because it reminded me of the movie 'A Mighty Wind'. A Mighty Wind is a spoof documentary about 3 folk bands from the 60s and it is ridiculously hillarious! Its by the same people who did 'Best in Show' the "documentary" about dog shows. Watch it if you get the chance. You will think to yourself, "Amy liked this? This is dumb, I'm wasting my time." And then you will laugh and you will be hooked.


However, that is not the point. The song in which I speak of goes like this:

Class Of '57 Lyrics
Artist(Band):The Statler Brothers

Tommy's selling used cars, Nancy's fixing hair,
Harvey runs a grocery store and Margaret doesn't care.
Jerry drives a truck for Sears and Charlotte's on the make,
And Paul sells life insurance and part time real estate.

Helen is a hostess, Frank works at the mill,
Janet teaches grade school and prob'ly always will.
Bob works for the city and Jack's in lab research,
And Peggy plays organ at the Presbyterian Church.

And the class of '57 had its dreams,
Oh, we all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deeds.
Or maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needs,
The class of '57 had its dreams.

Betty runs a trailer park, Jan sells Tupperware,
Randy's on an insane ward, Mary's on welfare.
Charlie took a job with Ford, Joe took Freddie's wife,
Charlotte took a millionaire, and Freddie took his life.

John is big in cattle, Ray is deep in debt,
Where Mavis finally wound up is anybody's bet.
Linda married Sonny, Brenda married me,
And the class of all of us is just a part of history.

And the class of '57 had its dreams,
But living life day to day is never like it seems.
Things get complicated when you get past eighteen,
But the class of '57 had its dreams.
Oh, the class of '57 had its dreams.


Doesn't that just make you want to crawl into a hole and die? Yeah, we've all got our dreams but once life kicks you in the teeth, you've gotta just hang on and take what you can get! Real inspiring there isn't it? If you take anything out of it I guess, just know that we're all in the same boat together and life rarely turns out the way we think it should, but man, its some adventure isn't it?!