Country Music: Song Lyric Sunday

Jim is the host of Song Lyric Sunday and this week the theme is Country Music https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/2023/01/21/what-is-country/

When I was in high school I had a boyfriend who said he liked country music and I said that I did not because it sounded like “suicide music”. I don’t think that was my name for it, probably something I heard. Anyhow, what I thought of country music was whining women about the guy who did them wrong, yada yada yada. He introduced me to Hank Williams and Alabama, to name just a couple favorites. Well, after this I was open to hearing more country music.

In college, I worked in Disney World for a semester on the college program. There was a bar, I think closer to Cocoa Beach than Lake Buena Vista, called Rodeo. I only went once or twice but I wanted so badly to learn line dancing. I never really did.

Now I do still listen to country, but mixed in with other stuff. After losing my first husband I listened to a song every day on the way to and on the way home from work that helped me cope.

Lyrics

I got rice cooking in the microwave
Got a three day beard I don’t plan to shave
And it’s a goofy thing but I just gotta say, hey
I’ma doing alright

Yeah, I think I’ll make me some home-made soup
I’m feeling pretty good and that’s the truth
It’s neither drink nor drug induced, no
I’m just doing alright

And it’s a great day to be alive
I know the sun’s still shining
When I close my eyes
There’s some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can’t every day be just this good
Ah, yeah

It’s been fifteen years since I left home
I said good luck to every seed I’d sown
Gave it my best and then I left it alone
I hope they’re doing alright

Now I look in the mirror and what do I see
A lone wolf there staring back at me
Long in the tooth but harmless as can be
Lord, I guess he’s doin’ alright

And it’s a great day to be alive
I know the sun’s still shining
When I close my eyes
There’s some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can’t every day be just this good

Sometimes it’s lonely, sometimes it’s only me
And the shadows that fill this room
Sometimes I’m falling, desperately calling
Howling at the moon, ah-ooh, ah-ooh
Yeah-yeah, oh-oh

Well, I might go get me a new tattoo
Or take my old Harley for a three day cruise
Might even grow me a Fu Manchu

And it’s a great day to be alive
I know the sun’s still shining
When I close my eyes
There’s some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can’t every day be just this good

It’s a great day to be alive
I know the sun’s still shining
When I close my eyes
There’s some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can’t every day be just this good, ah-ooh, oh yeah-yeah

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Darrell Scott

It’s a Great Day to Be Alive lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

***************************

Then as the days went on and I heard other tunes by other artists this song by Marin Morris became sort of my anthem. She isn’t necessarily considered full country but she fits in there.

Lyrics

I’ve cussed on a Sunday
I’ve cheated and I’ve lied
I’ve fallen down from grace
A few too many times
But I find holy redemption
When I put this car in drive
Roll the windows down and turn up the dial

Can I get a hallelujah
Can I get an amen
Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya
When I play the highway FM
I find my soul revival
Singing every single verse
Yeah I guess that’s my church

When Hank brings the sermon
And Cash leads the choir
It gets my cold cold heart burning
Hotter than a ring of fire
When this wonderful world gets heavy
And I need to find my escape
I just keep the wheels rolling, radio scrolling
‘Til my sins wash away

Can I get a hallelujah
Can I get an amen
Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya
When I play the highway FM
I find my soul revival
Singing every single verse
Yeah I guess that’s my church

Hey, can I get a hallelujah
Can I get an amen
Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya
When I play the highway FM
I find my soul revival
Singing every single verse
Yeah I guess that’s my church
Yeah I guess that’s my church
Yeah I guess that’s my church

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Maren Larae Morris / Michael James Ryan Busbee

My Church lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

love Memories short story stinewriting

A Fairy Tale: 28 Years Later

Once upon a time there was a young woman who was taking care of her mother. It was on this day that her mother was having a bad reaction to her chemotherapy and felt really, really awful. The young woman didn’t want to leave her mother alone so she waited with her for her father to come home. This didn’t upset the young woman because although she knew she would be late for the party, she would still have plenty of time to go and have fun.

After a little while the young woman’s father came home and she was able to go to the party. She was having a lot of fun. Her sister was there and so were many of her friends. Suddenly, the young woman saw a young man on the other side of the room. The young woman stared at him, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

The young woman was filled with joy at the prospect of meeting the young man. She told her sister that this was the man of her dreams and that she would marry him and live happily ever after. The sister laughed at her. The sister told her she was foolish and she shouldn’t say such ridiculous things.

The young woman was able to get the young man’s attention and they started to talk. They liked each other a lot. They left the party together and decided to spend more of their time alone so they could get to know each other better. They were falling in love.

The young woman thought about the night of the party and smiled. She was able to help her mother and she felt blessed to find the man of her dreams. The young woman was very happy and would still remember that night 28 years later!

The End

#stinewriting Christine Bialczak poetry Grief love Memories

Remembering the days…

When my memories go crazy
and I go back in my past
I see all my accomplishments
and some that really last
I see the laughs and hear the joy
in this love I am so calm
But then my breath gets caught off guard
my emotional lethal bomb.

Being a mom From my desk Grief love Memories Photographs

From my desk: November 10, 2022

Today I remember all the good things that happened since this day in 1999…

#stinewriting Blog Christine Bialczak poetry Compilation Daily Writing Prompt Fandango's One Word Challenge (FOWC) Memories One Word Challenge poems poetry Poetry to enjoy stinewriting Sunday Whirl Sunday Writing Prompt Weekend Writing Weekend Writing Prompt Weekly Writing Prompt Word of the Day Challenge writing prompt

Only Happiness: Compilation 10/23/2022

‘As ancestors go, mine are pretty unique
From the depths of the oceans to tall mountain peaks
The grief from their passing is replaced with a smile
The sadness is lifted, depths of loss reconcile
Pretty bright blooms rise right out of the ice
Rain melts the snow, it is really quite nice
Mud seems to grovel in crevices bare
While salt from the ocean’s like crystals of air
The bruises of sorrow on the skin of the soul
Replace what the heart wants and what it still knows
From the edge of a field to the top of a peak
No words heard murmuring, no sounds here to seek
Keep moving on ’til your cup runneth dry
And remember the happiness each time you cry.

#stinewriting Christine Bialczak poetry Grief Memories poems poetry stinewriting

Little Notes to You (even though you’re gone).

I have wanted to write to you every day
but the sadness and tears have kept me away
I think of it often and say that I’ll try
But each day goes on, each day goes by

I think of the words I’d write in my note
about all of the things said and things that you wrote
I’d write about things that we did in the past
But my sadness and sorrow swallow it up really fast

I hear of the people who lost their loved one
and it seems like these practices all have been done
Things meant to keep all the memories near and alive
Things meant to be said if only you had survived

And so I sit here in tears with my pen and my pad
Thinking of all the good times that we already had
Trying to know that what’s happened is done
Trying to keep going even now that you’re gone.

#stinewriting Blog Memories Photo Challenge What do you see?

What do you see # 152 – September 19, 2022

Dear Baby

*Image credit; Kelly Sikkema* @ *Unsplash*

For the visually challenged reader, the image shows a young woman holding a child wrapped in a white blanket, close to her bosom.

Dear Baby,
I waited 40 long weeks to finally meet you and you are better than any one, little person I could imagine. You are perfect and although you will change a little every day for the rest of your life I want you to know that I love all of you, no matter what changes occur. I will love you for all you do and for those things you choose not to do, I will love you for all the good choices you make and all your mistakes, I will love you for your accomplishments and your failures, and I will love you because you are you and there will never be anyone like you again.
Love Mommy

#stinewriting Blog family Memories Sunday Confessionals Sunday Writing Prompt

Sunday Confessionals : Generationally Environmental

Oloriel is the host of this share-yourself type of challenge. Check it out here: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/19271780/posts/4180167138

This week, I would like to invite you to explore just these patterns; if it was up to me I would say focus on the cute, little ones in yourself, your kin and those around you that you generationally and environmentally inherited or passed on, but you can likewise touch up on those that frighten you or make you question things.

Just a brief overview of my family…

On my dad’s side: I never met my grandfather as he had already passed away before I was born. My dad never said much about him but implied he was a hard worker. My grandmother died when I was a young child and I can remember her a little but mostly her sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home in Brooklyn, NY. My father had a wife and two daughters before he married my mother and had me, my sister and my little brother.

On my mom’s side: My mother passed away when I was 23. We were close and it was especially hard to get married and have two babies without her. I remember her so vividly, yet I can’t remember her at all. My grandfather passed away when I was little. I have one memory of him; we were sitting at a picnic table out in the yard. That’s is all I have. My grandmother passed away when I was maybe 10. I remember a lot more about her. I can picture her house and how it smelled. All the crap she had everywhere! I got that from her!

I inherited a lot from both of my parents and now that my father is in my care and more like a child (due to the dementia and Alzheimer’s) I am seeing things that we do the same and it is weird!
My mother was great at everything she did and I try to be like she was. When she made something, whether it was food, some sort of craft, or a Halloween Costume, it was perfect. Now, as you may know I craft daily. I also don’t cut corners and make sure all of my things are done correctly and nicely. I love to cook, also from my mom. I used to make my kids matching clothes when they were little, actually using my mom’s machine! She was a strong woman but loving. Everyone loved her and she was helpful to everyone no matter what. My mother worked with my father most of my younger life and then she worked as a teacher’s aide in elementary school up until she passed away. She was 50. She detested lying and sneaking around and had no tolerance for being nasty to one another. I am really like her in this way too.
My dad was a hard worker. He would tell stories about sticking gum on the end of a stick to get the coins out of gutters in Brooklyn as a kid. He also ran deliveries for shop owners to get money for movies and treats. He sold insurance (home, auto) and was a real estate broker. When my father wasn’t at the office he was either in the yard or in his favorite chair. He read the paper every day from front to back. He had a garden that is probably as big as the footprint of my present home (which is fairly small at only 1200+ square feet). He grew everything you can imagine and my sister and I would grab our wagon and pick vegetables so we could walk up and down the street selling them. He never said a word, but I can imagine he would have liked some of his own produce! I think I get my stamina from him, the get-up-early and work-until-dinner type of stamina.

What things I see now that my dad and I have almost exactly alike: 1. some of our physical issues – so now I wonder if he has psoriatic arthritis that never got diagnosed. 2. Our mannerisms when we are sitting and waiting for something or someone. Not fidgety but there is noticeable body language. 3. His sense of humor. 4. How he blows his nose (I wasn’t going to add it but it’s almost uncanny). 5. Problems swallowing – we both always feel like we have something in our throats.

#stinewriting Blog Lyrics Memories Music Song Lyrics Sundays stinewriting

Song Lyric Sunday: Selling More Music

Jim (and Fandango as a fill-in) host Song Lyric Sunday

This week the theme is songs that hit the top of the charts.

This is really hard! I have googled several different lists and there are so many songs that are just so good! I don’t know what to choose! Here are just a few that I found that I love, but I’m sure there are many more. I mean, genre, year, group vs. individual, remakes….How do you really decide?