Working today, from home, and listening to my music app. Steve Miller's "Take the Money and Run" comes over the channel and I'm immediately taken back to working with my first crew chief, Billy. During this song, he would always clap with the song (the quick claps during the verse) so today, as I'm sitting here at my "desk", (which is actually just a white folding table for my makeshift office). The song playing in the background, I can't help but clap along with the song at those same times. Thanks, Billy!?ÿ
Jet Airliner,?ÿthe long intro version, is a favorite of mine.
"...Two young lovers with nothin' better to do....than sit around the house, get high and watch the tube..."?ÿ ?ÿI can remember hearing those words and identifying with them.?ÿ Now I'm so old I'm on SS and I throw back statins and wash them down with Ensure.?ÿ That's how long that song has been around.?ÿ?ÿ
I've never thought of The Steve Miller Band as a group that shot lightning through the sky of the pop music world with their talent.?ÿ But jumpin' jiminy you can tap your foot along with any of their cuts!?ÿ I've seen them at least a dozen times through the years and it's always a great show.
Interesting note:?ÿ I read an interview once with Steve Miller.?ÿ He freely admitted to shortcomings as a guitarist.?ÿ He considered himself a showman.?ÿ One of his quotes:?ÿ "I haven't learned a new guitar lick in years".?ÿ ?ÿIf the old licks still work, don't change a thing.?ÿ
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Back right before my senior year in high school I bought (with hay hauling and tobacco cutting money) a new 75 triple black Monte Carlo for $4995. Put air shocks on it and BFG 50's on Rocket wheels with a Craig 8 track and Powerplay speakers. ?ÿWe used to go "cruise the Queen", the local Burger Queen, with the speakers turned all the way up for the intro to Miller's "Jungle Love". Could scare the crap out of somebody not expecting it.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=W_qTKqsZJEk&list=RDAMVMW_qTKqsZJEk
Back right before my senior year in high school I bought (with hay hauling and tobacco cutting money) a new 75 triple black Monte Carlo for $4995. Put air shocks on it and BFG 50's on Rocket wheels with a Craig 8 track and Powerplay speakers. ?ÿWe used to go "cruise the Queen", the local Burger Queen, with the speakers turned all the way up for the intro to Miller's "Jungle Love". Could scare the crap out of somebody not expecting it.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=W_qTKqsZJEk&list=RDAMVMW_qTKqsZJEk
This reminds me of the first car I drove to high school. It was a fully restored 1956 Chevy Belair with a 265 V8, Powerglide transmission, dual exhaust and fender skirts. It was a real sled. Anyway, I had my boom box in the front seat (the car only had a single speaker) and I'd roll down all the windows and blare Warrant - D.R.F.S.R. all the way to and from school.?ÿ
That ol car really rode smooth down the old highway, Dad didn't want me driving it on the "new" highway (he didn't want me "hot rodding" it either but you know), once you got it up to about 70-80 mph. The issue was once you got all that weight moving in the same direction, you had to gauge your distance to stop which was greatly increased.?ÿ
I loved that car and am grateful for all those trips back n forth to school! He traded it and a C Allis for a John Deere tractor.
One must be a true old timer to remember when the "new" highway wasn't there.?ÿ BTW, I am one who refers to those two routes as "old" and "new" even though I can't remember the "new" being built.?ÿ Do you recall the house on the northwest corner of the intersection at the point where you would leave the "old" highway to make the one mile jog.?ÿ That was referred to as "The Elms" and was a landmark along US HWY 54 used by interstate travelers, I have been told.
I was thinking a similar thought a couple of days ago about the house I helped my parents build in late 1964 on the site of our old house.?ÿ That will always be the "new" house to me.?ÿ The old house fit within the current site of the two-car attached garage.
One must be a true old timer to remember when the "new" highway wasn't there.?ÿ BTW, I am one who refers to those two routes as "old" and "new" even though I can't remember the "new" being built.?ÿ Do you recall the house on the northwest corner of the intersection at the point where you would leave the "old" highway to make the one mile jog.?ÿ That was referred to as "The Elms" and was a landmark along US HWY 54 used by interstate travelers, I have been told.
I do. "The Elms", so I've been told, was a hotel back in the day. I remember when it was much more grand than it is currently. That "old" highway was my route to and from school. If you turn and head west at "The Elms" and keep going, you can take gravel roads all the way to Iola.
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One mile of chip/seal, several miles to Mount Billking on gravel, then chip/seal for a few miles, then gravel, then chip/seal again.
