Illinois Blues

When I first joined the navy I ended up in Great Mistakes, IL (aka Great Lakes...or in navy lingo, GLAKES). It took only a very short time for me to realize that I hadn't lost anything there. So, after graduating Basic Electric and Electronics course I promised myself that I wouldn't go back. Ever. Not even if they asked nicely.

Except for switching planes at O'hare Int'l (a necessary evil if you fly on a United international flight) and spending a few extra minutes or hours sightseeing on O'Hare's tarmac (a necessary evil if you are going to fly out of O'hare on ANY flight) I have been true to my promise.

One night in Pusan (or Busan, depending on how recent your map is) I had a little of the local distilled spirits in me, though not enough to make kimchee seem like a good idea, and for some reason I got to thinking about my few months in Great Mistakes. Here's the poem I wrote on that sojou buzz:

Illinois Blues (Time Loves a Rambler)

I've got old home on my mind
I've got no reason to be here
Got no job and no scratch
And as a matter of fact
This ain't no place I could love.

Too many cars on the road
But I'm not going that way now
If they was headed down South
Then it might help me out
Of this here Illinois mud

Now don't you worry for me
Baby, time loves a rambler
And the Lord, he takes care
Of us hard headed fools

You know, I was lost
Til I quit thinking about it
Through the thick and the thin
Some you lose, some you win
By rightly bending the rules

I miss the smell of the pines
I left behind me in Dixie
Down an old country road
That let me carry my load
As far as I cared to go

Them old weathered gray porches
From my boyhood are calling
Say, "Fool, you know what I think?
Sit and pour you a drink
Then let it mellow down slow"

Now don't you worry for me
Baby, time is a healer
The good Lord just smiles
At all us hard headed fools

I couldn't make a good point
If it would save me from dying
But here I'm standing again
Some I lose and I win
Always bending the rules

Here I'm standing again
With my back to the wind
And the Illinois blues

Ed
Pusan, Korea

Seacrest, out. Oh, wait, the other punk already uses that.
Travelin' Ed