When You're Weary, Feelin' Small

An infamous incident, which I relate mainly because it so annoyed my sister and my wife at the time.


When I was 23, I totaled my car and dang near totaled myself in a "bad wreck." Six months in a leg cast and forced inactivity was the result.

So I was puzzled and pleased when my friend John Griffin came by the house one Friday evening and said, "Come go with me."

"Where to?"

"Your Uncle John's house."

Now Uncle John was the husband of my Aunt Ona (one of my mom's sisters; my favorite) and they both were people of musical
ability. And every Friday night they would jam and practice for music shows at various community centers in the area.

I credit these Friday night jam sessions with rekindling my love of playing music.

It didn't take long, after having heard Deb and I sing and play with our cousin Mike, that someone came up with the idea that we should form an opening act, as it were, for the main country music show.

And it didn't take me long to remember that I had a good friend Carroll (Oneida Flash) Casey who was a very accomplished drummer.

It was a cool, fun little group of kids (Deb was only 16 I think and Mike a year younger) and our audiences loved us and our music.

So it happened that on a late Friday evening on the way  home from a Friday night music session, we were cruising down a two lane blacktop when the Flash and I experienced a call of nature.

Being country boys, we pulled over, on a little bridge and raised the level of the creek a bit.

The womenfolk professed to be mortified at our uncouth behavior, though like true gentlemen, we kept out backs to the car (and them, of course) the whole time.

My significant other was upset enough to hold a "hateful grudge" for a day or two. She got over it.

Deb, being a Tolar, was annoyed at first over the perceived disrespect but soon added the incident to her arsenal of insults whenever we would begin to list one another's faults.

Flash and I named the affair "The Bridge Over Troubled Waters."

And you know, we never did figure out why our "dates" were so mad at us.

I personally think it's because they were jealous.

But to this day, I cannot hear Simon and Garfunkel without being transported back to a simpler time; a time when I was young, a time when I was finding out I was good at this music thing and could bring enjoyment to my listeners, When making music together was a new and fine thing.

A time when old boys could pee over the railing of a bridge on a moonlit summer night in Arkansas.