Veterans For Peace- Convention News: Important Deadlines Approaching! Have you registered?

Convention News: Important Deadlines Approaching! Have you registered?

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	Education Not Militarization Palmer House Hilton August 9 - 13, 2017 In this blast you will find information on: Click on title to be taken to section Deadline to Propose Resolutions/Bylaw Changes - July 9 Deadline for Payment of Convention Ads - July 7 Deadline to Receive Reduced Hotel Rate - July 14 Deadline to Nominate Someone for a VFP Award - July 14 VFP Award - Individual VFP Award - Chapter VFP Concert: Power to Peace Festival Jackson Browne Concert Speakers Convention T-shirt Coming Soon! Shipping Merchandise/Items to the Hotel Convention Registration Post Cold War Veteran Registration VFP Members Needing Assistance General Registration Convention Program Tabling Poetry Reading  Make a Donation  Childcare Resolutions/Bylaw Changes Before submitting a proposed resolution, please review the Protocols for submitting a Proposed Resolution and check VFP's Master Resolution Index Proposed resolutions can be emailed to Resolutions Committee Chair, Bob Krzewinski. wolverbob@gmail.com Bob Krzewinski 706 Dwight Street Ypsilanti, MI 48198 Before submitting a bylaw amendment, please review the Protocols for submitting a Proposed Bylaw and check VFP's Bylaws. 2017 amendments can be emailed or sent by regular mail to the Bylaws Committee Chair, Adrienne Kinne: bylaw@veteransforpeace.org Adrienne Kinne 2129 Mount Hunger Rd. Bethel, VT 05032  Deadline is July 9  Back to top ***** Awards Nominate an individual for a 2017 VFP Award here.   Categories Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award Service and Stewardship Award Leadership in Peace Award **NEW***The Gandhian Non-Violence Award Nominate a VFP chapter for a 2017 VFP Award here.  For award descriptions visit the Awards tab. Deadline is July 14 Back to top ***** VFP Concert Date:   Friday, Aug 11,  2017 Pricing: Convention attendees - $25 General Admission - $45 VIP Admission - $125 Unemployed Vets Admission: Free *Convention attendees will get a promo code AFTER they register for the convention to be eligible for the $25 ticket price Purchase Tickets for Friday's Power to Peace Festival!  Follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter ***** Back to top Jackson Browne Concert Date:  Sunday, Aug 13, 2017 Time:  Doors: 6:30 PM            Show: 7:30 PM Price: ​$50-$100 "I want to add my voice to those of Veterans For Peace in calling for the dismantling our war for profit economy, and working to end all wars," says Jackson Browne. "I recommend reading their position statement in response to the Trump Military budget. We need to follow VFP's courageous and principled example in calling for an end to our country's insane and inhumane military expansion." Purchase Tickets! ***** Back to top Advertising The deadline for placing ads is July 6, 2017.    Your ad will not run, if not paid for by July 17, 2017.  Payments can be made online or you can snail mail your payment to the National Office Veterans For Peace Ad Payment 1404 North Broadway St. Louis, MO 63102 Click here to view Advertising Guidelines Ad copy should be emailed to convention_advertising@veteransforpeace.org Deadline for ad copy is July 6 Deadline for ad payment is July 17 Back to top ***** Speakers The convention committee has secured the following speakers.  Keynote Banquet Speaker:  Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson Johnnie Aseron Andrew Bacevich Paul Chappell Phyllis Bennis Ellen Davidson Dan Ellsberg Rory Fanning Mike Hanes Matt Hoh Helen Jaccard Lyla June Johnston Andrew Lichterman Ken Mayers Ray McGovern Miko Peled Monisha Rios Ann Wright Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. Back to top ***** Hotel Registration VFP has arranged accommodations for this year's convention @ Palmer House Hilton 17 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603 Phone: (312) 726-7500 Rates: $159 per room plus 17.4% sales tax (total $186.67) Up to 4 people can stay in a room for the special rate.  The special rate is available Aug 6-18th. Use the link below to make your hotel reservation.  When asked to select your Guest type, please select “Attendee”. https://aws.passkey.com/e/48998328 Deadline to guarantee VFP Special Rate is July 14 Parking: There are 2 parking lots close to the hotel.  Your parking ticket should be taken to the registration area to be validated for in/out privileges and the special rates listed below.  For hourly rates, please check here. More affordable options: If members use Spot Hero they will find more affordable parking close to the hotel. Other lots run by the Park district are accessible Also members can search the internet for Cheap or Free Parking in Chicago. Back to top ***** Convention T-shirts Coming Soon! Keep an eye out for the opportunity to pre order your convention shirt. Back to top ***** Convention Registration Post Cold War Veterans The convention fee will be waived, and travel and housing assistance is available.  Veterans will be admitted to all activities Wednesday through Sunday, and the Saturday night banquet.  Post Cold War Veterans use this form to register. Non Post Cold War Veterans Needing Assistance Members who need financial assistance should submit here. All other Veterans, Associate Members, Workshop Presenters & Supporters Register today for this year's convention!  Register online or download a copyand mail in to Veterans For Peace Convention Registration 1404 North Broadway St. Louis, MO 63102 Full Convention Registration $225 Includes all activities Wednesday through Sunday, and the Saturday night banquet.   Reduced Rate Registration $125 This rate is available to all dues paying VFP national members and workshop presenters.  Includes all activities Wednesday through Sunday, and the Saturday night banquet. One Day Registration $ 55 For those who cannot attend for more than one day. *Banquet Dinner not included* Two Day Registration $ 75 For those who cannot attend for more than two days. *Banquet Dinner not included* Banquet Only $ 65 Saturday Banquet Online Registration will close July 28 Registration will re-open in Chicago, Tues Aug 8th Back to top ***** Convention Program Visit the program tab on the VFP website for a draft program.   Back to top ***** Tabling Tables are available.   VFP Chapters - $50 Non-Profits - $75 Vendors - $200 Reserve your table today online or send a check to VFP National Attn:  Tabling 1404 North Broadway St. Louis, MO 63102 Online Table Reservations will close July 28 Table Reservations will re-open in Chicago, Tues Aug 8th Back to top ***** Poetry Reading If  you would like to have your poem, included in the poetry soiree booklet please email John Spitzberg jspitzb227@aol.com by June 30, 2017.   Back to top ***** Donations Donations are always welcome!   Again this year VFP's membership committee has extended a hand to the Post Cold War Veterans.   General Donations will assist the convention committee to assist speakers and workshop presenters with their travel expenses help members who would otherwise be unable to attend Post Cold War Donations will assist Post Cold War Veterans who are Students and unemployed Those who have no alternative way to get to the convention (such as carpooling, caravanning, etc.) Members of groups underrepresented in VFP, such as women and people of color Back to top ***** Shipping Merchandise/Items to Palmer House Hilton The 2017 Convention Planning Committee is negotiating with the hotel.  More information to follow. Back to top ***** Childcare Childcare will be available as needed.  Please submit this form if you are in need of childcare. Back to top ***** We look forward to seeing you in Chicago! Visit the VFP website to get updates & more details!
Veterans For Peace, 1404 North Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102, 314-725-6005 www.veteransforpeace.org Veterans For Peace appreciates your generous donations. We also encourage you to join our ranks. Click to no longer receive updates from Veterans For Peace

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Poor Boy Blues" — Ramblin' Thomas (1929)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Poor Boy Blues" — Ramblin' Thomas (1929)

The year has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.


Poor Boy Blues




Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.

I was down in Louisiana, doing as I please,
Now I'm in Texas I got to work or leave.

Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.

If your home's in Louisiana, what you doing over here?
Say my home ain't in Texas and I sure don't care.

Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.

I don't care if the boat don't never land,
I'd like to stay on water as long as any man.

Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.

Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.

And my boat come a rockin', just like a drunkard man,
And my home's on the water and I sure don't like land.

Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy long ways from home.

Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Feather Bed" — Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)

Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Feather Bed" — Cannon's Jug Stompers (1928)

The year has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"99 Year Blues" — Julius Daniels (1927)

In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"99 Year Blues" — Julius Daniels (1927)

The year  has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.


99 YEAR BLUES

Hot Tuna

Well now give me my pistol man and three round balls
I'm gonna shoot everybody that I don't like at all
Like at all, Like at all
Like at all, Like at all

Gotta .38 special man and .45 frame
You know the thing don't miss 'cause I got dead aim
Got dead aim, got dead aim
Got dead aim, got dead aim

Well the world is a drag and my friends can't vote
Gonna make me a connection and score some dope
Go get high, go get high

Go get high, go get high

Stop The Endless Wars-Listen To The Gals And Guys Who Have Been There-Veterans For Peace-VFP

Stop The Endless Wars-Listen To The Gals And Guys Who Have Been There-Veterans For Peace-VFP

By Frank Jackman

Recently I wrote a comment in this space about “street cred,” anti-war street cred in that case placing the anti-war organization Military Families Speak Out directly in the front line of those who have earned that honor, earned it big time as those of us, even many veterans like myself could expect out in those mean sullen anti-war streets. In that comment I had placed Military Families in the same company as those from my generation, my war generation, the Vietnam War, who too “got religion” on the questions of war and peace and who ran into the streets in the late 1960s and early 1970s to put muscle into that understanding. I noted that there was no more stirring sight in those days than to see a bunch of bedraggled, wounded, scarred, ex-warriors march in uniform or part uniform as the spirit moved them, many times in silent or to a one person cadence, in places like Miami and Washington with the crowds on the sidelines dropping their jaws as they passed by. Even the most ardent draft-dodging chicken hawk in those days held his or her thoughts in silence in the face of such a powerful demonstration.       

That was then and now is now. Now that spirit of military-borne   resistance resides a greying, aging, illness gathering relatively small group of veterans who have formed up under the dove-tailed banner of Veterans for Peace (VFP). While that organization is open to all who adhere to the actively non-violent principles stated below who are veterans and supporters the vast bulk of members are from the Vietnam era still putting up the good fight some forty plus years later. Still out on the streets with their dove-tailed banners flailing away in some off-hand ill-disposed wind stirring those crowds on the sidewalk once again. Still having that very special “street cred” of those who had have to confront the face of war in a very personal way. Listen up.

*In Honor Of Our Class-War Prisoners- Free All The Class-War Prisoners!- Maliki Shakur Latine

*In Honor Of Our Class-War Prisoners- Free All The Class-War Prisoners!- Maliki Shakur Latine



http://www.thejerichomovement.com/prisoners.html



A link above to more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.

Make June Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month

Markin comment (reposted from 2010)

In “surfing” the National Jericho Movement Website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck, whom I had read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania death row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.

That last notion set me to the task at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a longtime supporter of the Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization which supports class war prisoners as part of the process of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.

Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases in the comment section. Likewise any cases, internationally, that come to your attention. I am sure there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!

LATINE, MALIKI SHAKUR

Hands Off Heroic Whistler-Blower Reality Winner-Julian Assange's Defense Of Her Actions

Hands Off Heroic Whistler-Blower Reality Winner-Julian Assange's Defense Of Her Actions    

Here we go again- We no sooner get the heroic Wikileaks whistle-blower Chelsea Manning out of the slammer, out of the clutches of the Army out in Fort Leavenworth than the Feds grab NSA contractor Reality (an appropriate name by the way) Winner for telling the world about Russian connections and Trump. Which by the way eight million Congressional committees and a DOJ Special Prosecutor are seriously looking into. None of them are facing any jail time from seeking to expose the truth. Hands off Reality Winner. Help defend her against the governmental monsters.   

It is rather appropriate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in the crosshairs of an international cabal looking for his hide was one of the first to come out in defense of  Reality Winner 

When Lady Day Chased The Blues Away, Again And Again-“The Quintessential Billie Holiday (Volume 1-1933-1935)”-A CD Review

When Lady Day Chased The Blues Away, Again And Again-“The Quintessential Billie Holiday (Volume 1-1933-1935)”-A CD Review 

CD Review

By Music Critic Seth Garth

The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 1, 1933-19352,

Everybody, at least the everybodies who came of age in the 1950s and 1960s, had at least heard the sad life story and junkie death of the legendary blue singer Billie Holiday. Knew that information either from having read her biography, the liner notes on her records (vinyl for those who have not become hip to the beauties of that old-fashion way to produce recordings in the retro revival of that method), newspaper obituaries, or from the 1970s film starring Diana Ross (lead singer of Motown’s Supremes). So everybody knew that Lady Day had come up the hard way, had had a hard time with men in her life and had plenty of trouble with junk, with heroin. Had turned her into some hustling gal with dark lights out of a Nelson Algren story about her daddy making her blues go away, had the “fixer” man making the pain going away for a moment. (I believe that the Prez, the great saxophonist Lester Young who himself blew many a high white note out to the China seas as the phrase went on the West Coast when he was “on” gave her that name. Put lady and day together and it stuck. He backed her up on many recordings, including here, and in many a venue, including New York café society before they pulled her ticket. The name fit her as did that eternal flower arrangement, sweet gardenia speaking of sexual adventures and promise, in her hair)     

Yeah, that is the sad part, the life and times part. But if you listen to this CD under review like the other ones in this series and other compilations that I am reviewing at this time while I am in a “from hunger” wanting habits mood about Lady Day’s work like I get into every once in a while about music that moved me, spoke to me. In this second volume in the series you will also know why in the first part of the 21^st century guys like me are still reviewing her work, still haunted by that voice, by that meaningful pause between notes that carried you to a different place, by that slight hush as she envelopes a song which kept your own blues at bay. I repeat kept your blues away whatever she suffered to bring that sentiment forward.

That last statement, those last two sentences, are really what I want to hone in on here since Billie Holiday is an acquired taste, and a taste which grows on you as you settle in to listen to whole albums rather than a single selection spending half the night turning over vinyl, flipping tapes, changing CDs if you don’t have multiple CD recorder, or grabbing the dial on an MP3 player. Here is my god’s honest truth though. Many a blue night when I was young, hell, now too, I would play Billie for hours, tune that vinyl over in my case, and my own silly blues would kind of evaporate. Nice right.

Here is the not nice part, maybe better the not respectful part for a sanctified woman’s voice and spirit.  Once a few years ago I was talking to some young people about Billie and, maybe under the influence of the Diana Ross film or from their disapproving parents, kind of wrote her off as just another junkie gone to seed. I shocked them, I think, when I said if I had had the opportunity I would have given Billie all the dope she wanted just for taking my own blues   away. That is why we still listen to that sultry, slinky, sexy voice today. 

Is everything in this CD or in her overall work the cat’s meow. No, toward the end in the 1950s you can tell her voice was hanging by a thread under the strain of all her troubles, legal and medical. But in the 1930s, the time of her time, covering Cole Porter, Gershwin and Jerome Kern songs with a little Johnny Mercer thrown in, the time of Tin Pan Alley songs which seem to have almost been written just for her she had that certain “it” which cannot be defined but only accepted, accepted gratefully. This first may be a little more uneven that her later work when she teamed up with serious jazz and blues players like the aforementioned Lester Young blowing out high white notes to the China seas while she basked in the glow of the lyrics. But just check out Miss Brown To You, What a Little Moonlight Can Do, and the classic Sunbonnet Blue and you will get an idea of what I am talking about. And maybe get your own blues chased away    

For Rosalie Sorrels -Tell Me Utah Phillips- Have You Seen Starlight On The Rails?

For Rosalie Sorrels -Tell Me Utah Phillips- Have You Seen Starlight On The Rails?

Commentary

I have been on a something of a Utah Phillips/Rosalie Sorrels musical tear lately but I want to pay separate attention to one song, Phillips’ “Starlight On The Rails", that hits home on some many levels- the memories of bumming around the country in my youth, riding and living free (or trying to), my on and off love affair with trains as a mode of transportation, and, of course the political struggle to fix what ails this country. And as Utah acknowledges below in introducing the song (from the Utah Phillips Songbook version) we get a little Thomas Wolfe as a literary bonus. Utah and I, in the end, had very different appreciations of what it takes to do this political fixin' mentioned above but we can agree on the sentiments expressed in his commentary and song.

Utah, aside from his love of trains as a form of personal transportation when he was “on the bum”, also was a vocal advocate for their use as mass transportation. He originally argued this proposition at a time when the railroads were losing passengers in droves to the great automobile explosion. Utah wrote a song for one of his sons “Daddy, What’s A Train?” on the demise of this more people-friendly form of getting around. Since then there has been, due to the mercurial economics of oil and some conscious social and environmental policy planning, something of a resurgence of the train as a means of transportation.

Nevertheless the saga of the train in this writer’s imagination remains more of a boyhood memory than an actuality today. I can still see those historic old names: Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, B&O, and Boston & Maine. I can still hear the whistle blow as the train comes into the station. The conductor’s yell of “All, aboard” or the station’s name. Those rattling sounds of wheels hitting the metal of the rails. But, mainly, I think of the slower times, the time to look at the scenery as the train ambles along and to understand the how, if not the why, of the contours of the way America sprouted up as it out moved in all directions from its Eastern shores.

I noted in a review of a PBS American Experience documentary, “Riding The Rails” (see archives, “Starlight On The Rails, Indeed”, November 4, 2008) growing up in the 1950’s I had a somewhat tenuous connection with trains. My grandparents lived close to a commuter rail that before my teenage years went out of service, due to the decline of ridership as the goal of two (or three) car garages gripped the American imagination in an age when gas was cheap and plentiful. In my teens though, many a time I walked those then abandoned tracks to take the short route to the center of town. I can still picture that scene now trying to hit my stride on each tie. As an adult I have frequently ridden the rails, including a cross-country trip that actually converted me to the virtues of air travel on longer trips.

Of course, my ‘adventures’ riding the rails is quite different than that the one looked at in the American Experience documentary about a very, very common way for the youth of America to travel in the Depression-ridden 1930’s, the youth of my parents’ generation. My own experiences were usually merely as a paying passenger, although when down on my luck I rolled onto a couple of moving trains. An experience not for the faint-hearted, for sure. But this was mainly slumming. Their experiences were anything but. The only common thread between them and me was the desire expressed by many interviewees to not be HERE but to be THERE. I spent a whole youth running to THERE. But enough of this- let Utah tell his story about the realities, not the romance of the rails.

Guest Commentary

Starlight On The Rails- Utah Phillips

This comes from reading Thomas Wolfe. He had a very deep understanding of the music in language. Every now and then he wrote something that stuck in my ear and would practically demand to be made into a song.

I think that if you talk to railroad bums, or any kind of bum, you'll see that what affects them the most is homelessness, not necessarily rootlessness. Traveling is all right if you have a place to go from and a place to go to. It's when you don't have any place that it becomes more difficult. There's nothing you can count on in the world, except yourself. And if you're an old blown bum, you can't even do that very well. I guess this is a home song as much as anything else.

We walked along a road in Cumberland and stooped, because the sky hung down so low; and when we ran away from London, we went by little rivers in a land just big enough. And nowhere that we went was far: the earth and the sky were close and near. And the old hunger returned - the terrible and obscure hunger that haunts and hurts Americans, and makes us exiles at home and strangers wherever we go.

Oh, I will go up and down the country and back and forth across the country. I will go out West where the states are square. I will go to Boise and Helena, Albuquerque and the two Dakotas and all the unknown places. Say brother, have you heard the roar of the fast express? Have you seen starlight on the rails?

STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS
(Bruce Phillips)

I can hear the whistle blowing
High and lonesome as can be
Outside the rain is softly falling
Tonight its falling just for me

Looking back along the road I've traveled
The miles can tell a million tales
Each year is like some rolling freight train
And cold as starlight on the rails

I think about a wife and family
My home and all the things it means
The black smoke trailing out behind me
Is like a string of broken dreams

A man who lives out on the highway
Is like a clock that can't tell time
A man who spends his life just rambling
Is like a song without a rhyme


Daddy What's A Train

Most everybody who knows me knows that I'm a train nut. In Dayton, Ohio, when I was 12 years old during the Second World War, there was a railroad that went close by Greenmont Village. A bunch of the kids and I built a fort out of old railroad ties, half dug in the ground and half above the ground. We let a bum sleep in there one night - I think he was the first railroad bum I remember meeting - came back the next day and it had been burned down. He'd evidently set it on fire or started it accidentally.

Playing around in that fort we'd see the big steam engines run by. The engineers would wave, and the parlor shack back in the crummy - that's the brakeman who stays in the caboose - would wave, too. Put your ear down on the rail and you could hear the trains coming. We'd play games on the ties and swing ourselves on the rails. Also we'd pick up a lot of coal to take home. I understand that during the Depression a lot of families kept their homes warm by going out along the right of way and picking up coal that had fallen out of the coal tenders.
This song is written for my little boy Duncan. His grandfather, Raymond P. Jensen, was a railroad man for over 40 years on the Union Pacific, working as an inspector. There's a lot of railroading in Duncan's family, but he hasn't ridden trains very much.



(sung to chorus tune)
When I was just a boy living by the track
Us kids'd gather up the coal in a great big gunny sack,
And then we'd hear the warning sound as the train pulled into view
And the engineer would smile and wave as she went rolling through;

(spoken)
She blew so loud and clear
That we covered up our ears
And counted cars as high as we could go.
I can almost hear the steam
And the big old drivers scream
With a sound my little boy will never know.

I guess the times have changed and kids are different now;
Some don't even seem to know that milk comes from a cow.
My little boy can tell the names of all the baseball stars
And I remember how we memorized the names on railroad cars -


The Wabash and TP
Lackawanna and IC
Nickel Plate and the good old Santa Fe;
Names out of the past
And I know they're fading fast
Every time I hear my little boy say.

Well, we climbed into the car and drove down into town
Right up to the depot house but no one was around.
We searched the yard together for something I could show
But I knew there hadn't been a train for a dozen years or so.

All the things I did
When I was just a kid-
How far away the memories appear,
And it's plain enough to see
They mean a lot to me
'Cause my ambition was to be an engineer.

Copyright ©1973, 2000 Bruce Phillips