Monday June 12th
It was very hazy as the sun came up this morning. Though not uncomfortable, the temperature and humidity cause anticipation and dread for the afternoons to come.
As I watch my backyard, I see flashes of bright red against a dark green background. And the vividness of the red lets me understand why so many Christmas ornaments are red. My vivid red right now are all the male Cardinals flying around my yard. One serenades me from the Red Oak now.
Boy, once the sun was up it didn’t take long for the haziness to clear.. mostly. The forecasted high for today is in the mid 90s. And the forecasted low tonight is in the mid ’70s. We are definitely deep into our midsummer season.
Way off in the distance a train whistle is announcing the railroad crossings as it heads toward Alvin.
That has been a sound that I have heard for most of my life. For many years when I was growing up there was a set of tracks running along the LaPorte freeway at the end of Scarborough about a mile and a half from my home. While too far away to hear during the day, the train whistles would float earily through my bedroom window at night. And bedroom windows in the ’50s and the ’60s we’re always open during three seasons of the year here
My grandparents house sat about as far from the tracks as our house here does. And between the tracks and the house was nothing but open pastures and crop fields. Needless to say you would hear that train whistle blow three times as it passed through Orchard. That’s been 50 years ago and to this day I can’t drive that highway along those tracks without passing at least one long freight train. Though truth be told, I have memories of passenger trains passing by in the summers of my youth on that very same track.
Then there is my most deeply held memory about railroad crossings.. where my dad always said ” railroad crossing lookout for the cars can you spell that without any R’s “. To which we would all respond in unison “T-H-A-T” as we giggled our little heads off.
I started following Jon Randall way back in the early 2000’s after I heard his song “North Carolina Moon“. Shortly afterword I purchased the CD. The song “In The Country” has always resonated with me. I thought it would be a good way to start the new week…
I find the family tree of musicians and their musical careers a bit more interesting than I once did… Jon Randall started his career with Emmylou Harris’s band The Nash Ramblers back in 1992. One of my other favorite singer-songwriters, Rodney Crowell, also spent some time playing and singing with Emmylou.. just about twenty years earlier with her backing band, The Hot Band.
On that note I’ll leave y’all there… I’ll catch y’all on the other side.
