LA
=========================================================================================
Just some thoughts:
All I knew about him was two things. One, the church where my wife and I attend had fed and provided a sleeping place for him the night previous and this morning his name well they called him Alabama.
This six A.M. morning as he sat in the passenger’s seat in the van I was driving taking him and the others back to the mission this morning he never stopped talking. “Man what kind of coffee is that your drinkin’ it sure smells good?” “Hazelnut,” I replied. “Coffee, man coffee, I sure like coffee. I had myself three cups this mornin’. Nothin’ like a good cup of coffee to get your mornin’goin’ is what I’ve always said. Yes, sir a good cup of coffee.” He continued on as we drove through the dark morning making our way back to their morning destination.
Less than an hour later when I returned the van to where I do each time I then got in my car slipped in cd and this song by one of my favorite female singers, the Irish lady Mary Duff came on. I had to stop and listen. Then my morning friend Alabama came again to my mind.
“Someone’s Child”
He sits in the rain beggin’ for change as people pass him by
And once in a while he’ll get a nod or a smile and nickels and dimes
But when the sun goes down on his part of town and the cold wind blows
He’ll make his way to a park in the dark where no one goes
Someone used to rock him on their knees
And when he cried they’d sing him a lullaby till he was fast asleep
They say he had his daddy’s eyes his mama’s smile
Oh they loved him so but that was long ago when he was someone’s child
The word on the street he had a degree and a big house in LA
But when it comes to his past don’t even ask he’s got nothing to say
People frown and put him down and don’t seem to care
That he down’s on his luck standing there
And from the flashing lights light up the night and the sirens scream
And as he breaths his last he drops a photograph that no one ever seen
He had his daddy’s eyes….and his momma’s smile…he once was someone’s child
Tomorrow is my biological mother’s birthday. Once she was a pregnant unwed teenager in 1942 and knowing much of the story my coming on the scene created a great deal of havoc for her I am sure. I will always have a debt of thanks and appreciation for her.
Today I also say a word of thanks to my friend Alabama for riding shotgun with me this morning. Alabama you helped remind me of a valuable less I need to remember. That lesson is regardless of one’s current looks, status or whatever circumstance might be of their life everyone was….
======================================================================================
December 15, 2015
Keep on,
Larry Adamson