The ramp had been built up over the course of three
days. Snow packed onto snow packed onto
snow. Finally a light mist of water was
applied to make the ramp as permanent as anything could be that was made out of
snow. As most of us were disciples of
Daredevil/pain killer addict Evel Knevel, we were all anxious to descend the
hill at breakneck speed and have a spectacular wipeout into the snow. It was really a shame one of us wasn’t more
of an engineer…
At seven years old your grasp of things like speed and
angles are limited at best. You try to
go as fast as you can on your bike/wagon/sled, but a seven year old can only
propel himself so fast. I think it was
this lack of experience that really came into play in our construction of the
high angle ramp at the bottom of “killer hill”.
Killer Hill, so named for the alleged death of a golfer in the immediate
area after being struck by a ball, seemed to be about as big as the
Matterhorn. A sled run took seemingly
minutes to complete, and the walk back up the hill with your trusty sled could
take a half hour easy. Well, that’s what
it seemed like anyway.
I don’t remember the kid’s name that decided to be the first
one to take the ramp. I think it was
Robby. He was a sandy haired kid with a
red knit cap that was a little too confident for a seven year old. He was pretty fearless though, and launched
himself down the hill with a flourish.
By the time he was about halfway down the hill, even the most dimwitted
of the gathered children knew the ramp was too radical for this kid at that
speed. When he hit the ice slick runway
area for the ramp, it was like a turbo went off on his sled. The ramp was at such an impossible angle that
the sled and probably the air leaving his body made an impressive “thump!” when
he hit it.
As he cartwheeled up in the air, I realized we had somehow
so underestimated the distance the sled rider would travel that we did not
factor in the cherry tree. Don’t even
mention the height that this poor kid found himself while hurtling towards the
tree. It all happened pretty fast. The crying after impact wasn’t even a big
deal. No, what was a big deal was the
blood that decorated the snow in all directions like fallen cherry blossoms
from a tree in winter. I stood there
open mouthed looking at the raw beauty of the cherry blossom snow as an adult materialized
out of nowhere to take the fallen warrior back home for bandages and soup.
The ramp slowly melted during the Spring thaw, the husk a
grim reminder of our shared failures as both engineers and daredevils.
Johnny Cash Project update:
Disc 13: Bitter Tears- This is another concept record where Johnny takes
on the plight of the American Indian. As
it was 1964, country music and country music radio wasn’t really interested in
hearing about the plight of the American Indian. Johnny had to take out ads in trade
publications daring them to play the record, which they begrudgingly did. The problem is the record is real drag. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is pretty good, and
I also dig “Custer” and “White Girl”.
Still, it's hard to get fired up hearing about how shitty The White Man has done the Indian. Look, I'm here in a subdivision in the Cleveland area. What am I gonna do about it? Quit busting my chops Johnny... Disc 14: “Orange Blossom Special”
is a good one. Johnny fires the first
shot in the Johnny Cash/Bob Dylan mutual admiration society with covers of “It
Ain’t Me Babe”, “Mama You Been On My Mind”, and “”Don’t Think Twice, It’s
Alright”. This has some great
stuff. “The Long Black Veil”, “The Wall”,
and “Orange Blossom Special” all became Cash concert staples. Highly recommended. You should know these songs unless you have no taste in music whatsoever. Disc 15:
Johnny Cash Sings The Ballads of the Old West is a double album. It’s mostly cowboy and pioneer songs, which
he does really well. There’s more of that
spoken word stuff, which makes it feel like a Disney Hall of Presidents ride at
times. Some of it has way too much
production, with string sections and those fucking backup vocals drenched over
everything. Still, “Hardin Wouldn’t Run”,
“Mean As Hell”, “25 minutes To Go”, and “Green Grow The Lilacs” are pretty
great. I dare you to get through “The
Shifting Whispering Sands” Part 1 and 2 more than once. You can see why Columbia released a one LP
version of this called “Mean As Hell” that somehow omits “Green Grow The Lilacs”. They probably sold a lot more of those at Stucky's than the more expensive double LP version. Disc 16:
Everybody Loves A Nut is a collection of light hearted songs that is
actually really well produced. These are
a bunch of Jack Elliot, Jack Clement, and Shel Silverstein songs. The good news is this is from 1966 and the
Carter Family backups are under control.
“Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog” appears on Live at Folsom later. A lot of these were new to me but fear not as for the
most part these are pretty good songs done really well. Maybe it is just because I was in good
spirits when I listened to this, but I really like it. We’ll find if it bears repeated listening. Disc 17:
Happiness Is You gets back to what Johnny does best, heartbreak
songs. I really like his two kiss-off
songs “Ancient History” and the Gordon Lightfoot cover “For Loving Me”. “She Came From The Mountains” is really
sad. In these songs, you don’t just lose
the girl. You lose the girl forever and
maybe she dies and you are left to live a hopeless life alone with only
tortured memories. Or maybe you die
too. There is no redemption. If you want to be really bummed out
after a bad breakup, you could make a Johnny Cash 20 cut CD that would leave
you in tears by the end of it. I’m
serious. You would vow off even speaking
to the opposite sex ever again. You have
to be careful with these records. They
are powerful. “Happy To Be With You” has
this funky calliope organ that is a total departure in sound, but in my mind
totally works. This is clearly a stopgap
record, but “Happy To Be With You” still went to #9 on the country chart.
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