This is a sentiment heard over and over from just about every songwriter on the planet.  Probably because it’s true…!

When I wrote “She was His Life”, (a song that always seems to bring a tear to someone) I decided it was time to let go of some of the sad old “tear-jerkers” I had been writing, and write something from a place of deep emotion.  I wanted to write about something I had witnessed that inspired me, And I did!

My Mother and Father had the kind of relationship that most of us only dream about.  It was first love for both of them, and they remained true to one another for 46 years until Mom’s passing in 2000.  After she was gone, Dad said to me, “We only had 46 years, doesn’t hardly seem like it was enough.”

The true love they shared, spilled over into everything they did, and was lavished on us children also, no doubt spoiling us rotten…  But if nothing else, it taught us how to love!

So when I began to write “She Was His Life” it really only took about 30 minutes to get the lyrics, and maybe another hour to work out the tune in my head.  I know at the time I was traveling US 54 between it’s junction with US 61 and Mexico Missouri, a distance of 44.6 miles, about 57 minutes driving time.  (see map)  

To date, this has been one of my better efforts, most popular with 45 to 85 year olds, probably because of the increasing numbers of us who have lost a loved one…

My point is, for a songwriter to be successful, he or she must have that well of emotion to draw on.  As I was first writing this song, I could hardly continue, for visualizing my Mother and how much I missed her.  Then it became even harder as I realized that for Dad, in many respects she had been his whole reason for living!

So if you ever think you want to write songs, remember to write about what you know and care about.  Anything else may just be a waste of paper!  …er, hard drive!  Whatever!  :-D

For those of you curious about how the writing process goes… well, it’s probably different for everyone… but for me I search my thoughts for a subject I have a lot of strong emotion about.  Every one of my songs, (40 something) have arisen from an experience that had a lot of meaning for me.

“She  Was His Life” of course was about the wonderful, loving relationship my parents had, the one that was my subconscious model for relationships, and what happens after it’s over…

“Bayou Girl” was a little ramble back into the days of my youth to an experience we’ve probably all had — someone who loved us but we were too full of ourselves to realize it at the time, and missed an opportunity…

So… the last few days I have been thinking about my youth, growing up on “The Farm”, and how I didn’t appreciate it at the time because of all the big dreams I had…

Here’s what I have, feel free to critique, Your input is valued!!

A Massey-Harris tractor, a hay baler and a plow,
The barefoot days of summer, Oh how I miss them now.
Fifteen years and counting, the days until I’d be a man,
But now that I have everything,
I thought I wanted then….
What I wouldn’t give,
For that teen-age farmers tan.

The sweat was pouring down my face, as we gathered in the hay,
That barn loft was an oven, as we stacked it all away.
I was sure I was mistreated, on that hot, hot summer day,
But now that I have everything,
I thought I wanted then….
What I wouldn’t give,
For that teen-age farmers tan.

My Mother was an angel, in her dresas of snowy white,
My Daddy he was Superman and they were always right.
The simple life that they enjoyed, just wasn’t in my plan,
But now that I have everything,
I thought I wanted then….
What I wouldn’t give,
For that teen-age farmers tan.

Let me know what you think of the lyrics, I’m still working on the tune!

It has been a long time since I posted here, so I guess the Title of this blog is a little misleading… it sounds like everything that happens in my life will be chronicled here, immediately, as it happens, but actually it’s more like my latest spasm!  Occasionally I have a brain spasm and dump something here!  :-D

Right now I am working on my music.  Those that love me have requested it several times over the years, so I guess it’s about time!

What got me going this time was the thought: “Well, another year gone by and what did I accomplish financially?”  That got me to thinking about how the “old timers” would always talk about how time seemed to go faster with each passing year.

Well, OK Grandparents, Great Aunts and Uncles, Mom and Dad etc.,  You were right, it DOES seem to pass more quickly as we get older!

Not that I ever really doubted you, I just couldn’t relate to what you were saying 40 years ago…  And how wrong is THAT; that I should even be able to remember and talk about 40 years ago??? It would be different maybe if I actually felt 52…   Mentally I mean…

On a larger scale tho, there is a strange sense of belonging to a process that is greater than ourselves, a sense of continuity, and a rare sort of peace about it all…

God’s works are not only greater than we understand, but greater than we CAN understand!

Peace!

I am sitting here, coffee and cigarette, the bane of a truck drivers occupational hazards, slowly warming my metabolism to a slow acceptance of the day’s infinite possibilities.

HOME!
So this is what it feels like!
It’s only been two weeks this time, about the time it usually takes me to acclimate to the road from the last time…
I can’t explain why ANYONE would choose this lifestyle, let alone embrace it for 24 years, but it has to be an integral part of a person, of their core personality. Not the driving, or the travel so much, but rather the ‘Gypsy’ mindset, the longing for far horizons, the thirst for experience outside the norm.

Hard to believe sometimes, that it is there in my safe, cautious, introverted personality.
What am I searching for, what drives me onward like a compulsion from which I cannot awaken?
Or is it just a refusal to accept the mundane, even though being a gypsy becomes pretty mundane after a while!

Coming home then becomes the adventure… fitting into ‘normal’ society, even for a few days, the challenge…

Strange humor, black humor perhaps, understandable only by those other misguided (or is it guided?) souls who have “been there, done that!”

Nevertheless, an old John Denver song keeps running through my head… “…and hey it’s good to be back home again!”

After leaving home May 10th, I finally arrived home again Aug 3rd.

Yeah, being an owner operator requires dedication!

However, Karen was able to come out and ride around with me for 12 days in June.

After getting home Monday I spent a couploe days recuperating, and then we motored down to Baton Rouge La. area to visit my Cousin Laura Gordon, and some old friends – The W.A. Jeane family.

My old buddy, Craig Jeane drove in from Houston Tx with his lovely wife and 2 daughters, and we have had a wonderful time!

Of course a guitar/mandolin session got mixed into the middle of all this.  It wasn’t rockabilly, maybe swampbilly music…

I know this is short, but it’s all I have time for now…

422 Ancestors later I have traced my Mother’s side of the family back to England in the 14th Century using an amazing web site known as Ancestry.com

Click to  view my Family Tree (once you arrive at the main page, click the “Family Tree” tab)

It’s amazing to me how Mother used to try to interest me in my ancestors, and as a young man, I wasn’t interested as they were people I didn’t know!  It wasn’t so much because I was anti-social, (everyone knows I am) it was more because I am  visually-oriented, and have trouble attaching significance to what I can’t see.   However, Mother and Dad always said we were supposed to grow older and wiser.

I’ve got the older part down, now if I could just get wiser!

One of the stories Grandma Ruth used to tell was about an ancestor who came over on the Mayflower.  I remember as a child actually being interested enough that I opened an old encyclopedia and looked for the surname on the Mayflower passenger list!  I could remember finding it, but I couldn’t remember what the name was now.

Turns out it was William Bradford 1590-1657, 2nd Governor of the Plymouth Colony.  Through William Bradford (there were 5 of them!) the line runs back to a Roger DeMarton, born 1287 in Yorkshire England!!

Why the tour?  Well usually when someone comes to your home for the first time, you show them where you live.  And believe me, although my mail comes to Randolph MS., here is where I live! And as much as I wish it were different, in order for my mail to keep coming to MS, “Big Red” is where I have to live!

(Did that make any sense at all?)

So take a moment, Browse through, and welcome to my new “home”!

Click any of the photos for a larger view.

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“The more things change, the more they stay the same…” -Unknown

“…guess what I’M doing!” – Ray Stevens in ‘It’s Me Again Margaret’

“There is nothing new under the sun..” - King Solomon

Just a update to this forgotten blog, an entry to an excruciatingly minor footnote in American History

I’m back into the business side of Trucking, and am now officially known as:
David C Schupbach NCRS
(Nationwide Commodity Relocation Specialist)

Vital Stats of the Beautiful Beast pictured above:

• 2003 Kenworth T2000
• Burgundy/Silver
• 475 hp “Pre-Emission” Caterpillar Engine (1650 ft/lb torque) upratable to 550 hp
• 13 spd Fuller transmission
• 3.55:1 rear axle ratio
• 22.5 lp tires on 10 Aluminum Wheels
• Full Aero package
• “75 integral sleeper w/refrigerator, microwave, 2500 watt inverter.

In case anyone is wondering, apparently there is an integral form of insanity accompanying the ability to drive a truck coast-to-coast.  Incidentally, the “ability to drive a truck” involves far more than just being able to get behind the wheel and go thru all the gears without leaving the road.

No… to earn your NCRS degree, you have to have the kind of mental defect that enables you to spend the better part of your life sheperding 80,000 lbs. of steel, rubber, and glass down the road at 65-70 mph.  All the while dodging tourists, locals, and law enforcement who just want to get a closer look at “the pretty truck with the ugly driver!” :-0

And to do it for 20+ years?

There’s a word for that… I think it’s:

Gotta run now, I think I hear my Jake Brake calling…