Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:28:17 -0500
From: Charlie Ford <cford@mindspring.com>
Subject: Notes from Smithville, Texas

'Want you look down upon me Jesus, ya got help me make a stand, you just
gotta see me through another day".

Those words were written by my one of my "mello music heros", James Taylor.
Many have thought of him as a depressing artist, but for many I know that
tend to thing about the spirit more than the material, he is a minstrel
mentor.  When I was a teenager I had a friend that became a minister.  He
asked me if I would drive him to his revivals where he was to preach for
the evening.  I was somewhat troubled at the time, and he took it upon
himself to try and help.  On the way to these gigs, he listened to JT.
"Mud Slide Slim, and the Blue Horizon" 8 track tape.  : O

Hazlehurst is a small town that has the same delimnas of most of rural
community America.  The power infrastructure is "old money", and teens have
very little to do except work.  On Saturday nights we rode "the strip" in
Hazlehurst.  It was a two mile strip of pavement that went through
downtown, from the Rebel (a hamburger joint) to the Tastee Freeze (another
hamburger joint).  On weekdays we wnt to school, we learned our ABC's and
2+2=4.  We learned how to drive, and how to be driven.  We learned to
aspire to no different than anyone else that was raised in America.  We
learned to follow models rather than lead as models.

this past week one of the samll towns I visited was Blanchard, Oklahoma.

Today I sat in the home of David Goldberg.  I met his wife, his two kids,
and his 1979 Westfalia.  After leaving I started thinking about home.  What
it would be like to be "Married with children".  I would probaly end up
being like Al Bundy, but I like to think I would be different.  I like to
think I would be like, one of those husbands that moved in harmony with is
wife.

I think I was finally feeling the affects of a very tiring week on the
road.  Man, what a tumble weed.  One minute I was driving, the next I was
stranded.  One day I was in Oklahoma City sleeping in the comfort of a nice
house, the next I was camping in the parking lot of a NAPA in a small town
in south Oklahoma, and it was ten degrees outside.

But, all in all, good things have come from this past week just like they
do from all of the hard times we see.  I know a couple more VW buds, met
one of them, and he is a good man.  I know a couple more AAA towtruck
drivers, that is sort of sweet and sour if ya think about it.  I bought a
cartop carrier at a yardsale for $3.00, hell I could easily sell it for
50.00 if worse comes to worse and I need a tank of gas and some food.

I learned that the bad is as bad as it seems, i just have to remember
memorize each and every feeling and experience, for the bad is also part of
the sacredness of life.  When things are bad, there are always those folks
that you can fall back on.

Although I didn't have to accept a lot of any outside help directly, the
fact that there were so many messages posted back to me stating things
like; "I can be there in about two hours and bring you a fuel pump", or "I
think we have some used ones out here for spares, just let me know where to
ship it", or just those that said "hey man, hang in there, we're all
thinking about you and your in our prayers".  Those messages boosted my
morale like you folks will never know.

The delimna's of my week created those draining thoughts that tell us we
are all alone, and that no one can helps us.  In times such as these we get
desperate.  We question everything we have construed or created as good.
We feel as though we may as well quit, just toss it all and go to the
house.  The irony for me is that my house is my bus "the Mothership".  And
a fine one it is!

I am still missing home and that stable lifestyle that for some reason
bored me to leave. But I know I have community, even if it is the
continental United States.  Life is good, I think I'll go and cruise the
strip again this next week.  The one in Hazlehurst was two miles exactly, I
feel I can handle a few thousand more.

"with ten miles behind me, and ten thousand more to go."

Thanks,
Charlie Ford




"79" Transporter, dressed for the road
The Mothership

 The"Turning 40 Nostalgic VW Service Tour, and
Search for the Beginning of Wind".

www.armory.com/~y21cvb/charlie/charlie.html

"Wider still and wider.....shall thy bounds be set"