THOUGHTFUL THURSDAYS
Tales of Colorado...Somewhere around Boulder...
Walking and climbing and trekking up, up,
up higher, and higher and getting “buzzed.”
No, not that kind of “buzzed.”
Buzzed by big flying insects. I hate that!
I especially hate those huge, black and yellow bumblebees.
You know what I mean, don’t you?
I’m not talking about the little, skinny, yellow-jackets. These are BUMBLEBEES as big as small birds, and their buzz is as loud as a string trimmer!
Now, puzzle me this. Why do they get so ticked off?
Here I was, minding my own business; transmigrating myself up the mountain to “Neverland”, and this, cockadoodie bumblebee won’t leave me alone!
He kept buzzing me and dive bombing me, and I’m scared sh__less, because I was stung by one of those big suckers in my innocent youth, and it felt like someone stuck a dull dagger into my arm! It swelled up bigger than an extra large, Grade A, Farm Fresh egg!!
So, my survival instincts took over and I came up with a brilliant plan. ( At least, I thought so at the time.)
Genius that I am, I dove into the stream where the enormous bee couldn’t sting me under water. Ha!
Unfortunately, the water was only about 10 inches deep at this part of the stream, and my butt was prominently protruding above the sparkling water.
To add insult to injury, my pants had slipped down to “plumbers crack” proportions, providing an irresistible target for the evil, merciless bee!
Now, I’m going to try to describe indescribable pain.
Lets say you're lying in an ice cold Colorado stream with your bare butt sticking out of the water.
Hulk Hogan comes walking up the stream with a BIG hammer (Like Thor’s hammer) in his hand, and a rusty, 16 penny nail!
He positions the nail at the top portion of your right butt cheek, and with one whack of the hammer, drives the nail all the way in!
That’s what it felt like when that “demon bee” stung me!!!
That’s not all, folks.
I’m allergic to bee stings.
I crawled out of that stream, dizzy, puking, swollen, and basically out of my freakin’ mind!
I wandered, stumbled and meandered for hours or maybe days ( I’m not really sure), but, miraculously, I ended up on the east bank of the “Bob Barker Reservoir.”
I think I fell into a “comma” for a brief period of tom, but how would I know?
After what seemed to be 4 hours and 17 minutes, I woke up amidst really “good grass” and “awesome weeds," lying on my back on the eastern shore of the “Bob Barker Reservoir.”( I was still a bit “high” from the bee sting so I needed to “come on down!"
Since I was on my back anyway, I watched the beauteous, white, puffy, billowy clouds against the “baby blue” sky as they formed images of animals, faces, and other things as they gently floated across “God’s canvass.” ( Whew! That wasn’t bad! I wonder where I stole that?)
One cloud looked like my childhood pup, Fluffy, rolling on his back and wanting his cute little soft fluffy belly rubbed. (Sniff) Then the cloud morphed into a two headed turtle with his mouth (or mouths) open, that changed into a long dragon eating another cloud that seemed to be a bunny with one ear, and those two clouds mixed together with another cloud, and made a full figured portrait of Elvis sitting on a hill, amidst “good grass and “awesome weed" ( I mean, weeds), playing the guitar.
What! What did I just see?
The mysterious, cumulonimbus cloud formation disappeared in a couple of minutes, but it was the coolest “cloud art” I’d ever seen in my entire life; or since!
Maybe I didn’t really see it at all. Maybe the devastating, mind altering bee venom was still in my highly allergic brain receptacles.
No matter. Real or imagined, that glorious cloud formation inspired me to write one of my most beautiful and tear jerking songs. ( WOW-WEE! I sure went a long round about way to slip my song in this blog.)
Here are the heartwarming lyrics that are sure to send chills up your spine.
Tupelo Mississippi Man
By Danny Maness
A lonely man was walking through the forest in the morning,
He stopped and took a drink out of a stream,
He saw the tiny ripples as he leaned down by the water,
And he thought back to the time when he was “King.”
The sun was rising swiftly as he sat and rested gently,
On a grassy spot that grew upon a hill,
He thought of all the beauty he had seen in all his travels,
But he knew that he would have to travel still.
He’s a Tupelo Mississippi Man,
And he travels all across this land,
By night or by day when the coast is clear.
He’s a Tupelo Mississippi Man.
‘cross a mountain range through the desert sand,
And he don’t know where he’s going,
But it’s a long, long way from fear.
He walked down through a valley and he came upon some children,
Playing games and singing songs by a shaded wood,
He thought about his daughter who grew up without her father,
He would touch her lovely face if he only could.
Through tears of joy he sang to them “new” songs they’d never heard,
‘bout a hound dog, a teddy bear and a heart of wood,
Then he had to laugh when a little boy stood up and said to him.
For an old man you sing those songs real good.
He’s a Tupelo Mississippi Man,
And he travels all across this land,
By night or by day when the coast is clear.
He’s a Tupelo Mississippi Man,
‘cross a mountain range through the desert sand,
And he don’t know where he’s going,
But it’s a long, long way from fear.
Notice how prophetic this song was. This was 1971 and Elvis didn’t fake his death and start wandering around America until 1977!
