THAT TIME IN SILVER CITY

By John Klawitter

<700 words>

 

I was feeling old and blue, feelin’ my age, you know, wonderin’ where everybody’d gotten themselves off to. I know I been out of it since the band broke up, feelin’ sorry for myself, I confess; you think it’s all gonna be okay forever and then there’s an unexpected kabam over something that’s nothing and it’s all gone. So here I find myself rehydrating at a bar in Silver City in Idaho called Jackie Rogers Pickle Bar & Books and that seemed to me like an odd name for a saloon; I looked around and it seemed there was all sorts of folks I’d met at one time or another.  In one corner there was some fellow looked awful much like Johnny Cash (even though I knew that couldn’t be ‘cause he’d passed on to that great ranch in the sky), and across the way was an imitation Kenny Rogers after he got his face lifted though I warned him against, and there was some lady I didn’t know up on stage and she was singing in a sad, sweet voice.  Seemed like she was lookin’ right at me, you know, the way they do, and she sang

  I’d like to be just half the friend/ You always thought I was

I wish I’d had a winning plan/ Worthy of your love.

 

Your joy came from some hidden space/ Rare light for this time and place.

Your smile lit up the neighborhood/ Let’s all hear it now for being good,

Yeah, let’s shout out/ an’ kick about

Raise a rousing cheer for being good.

 

Oh we did tootle/ and we’d honk/ Freewheeling at our trade

And we did wander Happytown/ With many a song we made.

 

Free lancers true/. Joyful and blue

Wandering through/ Do what we do.

 

The years went by/ we lost our way

Jamming through the life we made

Life water flows/ No place to stay

We couldn’t tell / was night or day

That was the price we paid.

 

And yet…

You helped out when you could/In boom times and in bust

You advised me what to do/And told me when I must.

 

Once you were free and clear

I didn’t see; I didn’t know

You flew off from this rocky shore

Too sudden soon no longer here.

Too sudden soon you had to go.

 

I like to think I’m better now/ I’ve learned a thing or two

I wish I’d learned a little more/ I could have shared with you.

 

Your smile lit up the neighborhood/Let’s hear it one last time for being good.

Let’s raise a beer and give a cheer/ Let’s all hear it now for being good.

Yeah, come on now everybody—one last time for being good. 
Let’s all hear it now for being good.

 

The sweet girl finished her song and started to pack her guitar back in a battered case with stickers all over that seemed familiar. She wasn’t quite as young as she’d looked with the lone spotlight on her, and I realized I knew her from somewhere or other.  Seems we’d played a gig together in Austin, or was it Amarillo, I couldn’t remember, or wait now, comin’ back to me, seems like a lifetime ago we’d played together maybe a hundred or so gigs, yeah, right, back in the early days but we’d lost track and Lord o’ mercy, time goes by too fast, you know it don’t you, and then next thing I heard she’d passed though the veil, bus off the road. Driver fell asleep, something like that, and I remember thinking that seemed impossible here it was, she could be gone and I knew it couldn’t be true even though it was.

 

The beer wasn’t settling right and I started to get up and leave but found myself on the sawdust floor looking up at the ceiling and that seemed mighty strange but then she was standing right there over me, leaning down with that smile of hers, holding out a hand.  “Come on, you crazy old cowboy” she said.  “We got a long ways to go before dawn.” 

 

And I got up and left with her.

 

*Let’s All Hear It Now For Bein’ Good,

Lyrics, John Klawitter, ASCAP