Mountain Girl

"Does anyone remember
Does anybody care
The days we danced together
With feathers in our hair
Rivers ran together
To sing a crystal tune
Stones skipped on the water
Circles around the moon

Oooh hey yea yea
When the full moon shines
The mountain pines are swaying
Oooh yeah yea
Close your eyes and listen
To the guitars playing..."

English 102. I chose that class because of you. I could have picked any one of them, I had the scores. I had placed far above the rest...

But when you smiled and looked over at me, guitar in hand, legs beneath you on that green wide blanket of grass, I looked down and pulled a blade, quietly, between my forefinger and thumb and repeated what you said with a smile. "That's funny. Me too. I'm in that class too." I brushed the hair out of my eyes and looked up into the blue midwestern sky. I chose to give my thin poker face to the sun, rather than let it settle onto your surprised expression. This little crush. My dear friend.

You would become my dear friend, transforming from a tanned and tattooed mystery into an easy smile and a gatherer of my thoughts. You gathered them and held them within the chords turned out from your guitar.

"Built a box together
Filled it full of songs
And buried it on the mountain
Beneath a pile of bones.
Then we said goodbye forever
to the hell that was our home
and set out across the flatlands
for 40 years to roam"

You gave so much to me. You gave me the confidence in my faltering love for the music of my childhood. From one chorus in passing of an old America tune, we ventured on, pulling the dusty records from the forgotten coat closets in our memories, playing them on brilliant running Autumn days, playing them until I recognized their cherished tone in so much more. I remember when you first played Blue Mountain for me. The churning guitars and earnest croon of Cary Hudson and company harkened to mid-day journeys down freshly oiled gravel roads, the seasoned wind burning across the prairie and into our way, windows down and arms extended. I could put all of those memories into a rolling contemporary recording and I remember how much that meant to me at the time. Today, ten years later, these days and discoveries of college have turned into heartheld memories of their own.

"Oooh hey yea yea
When the full moon shines
The mountain pines are swaying
Oooh yeah yea
Close your eyes and listen
To the guitars playing..."

Thank you, dear Friend. Though many days and many miles may seperate our traveling souls, tomorrow when Cary takes the stage and begins to sing, I will see you on Scott Field. I will be transported once again.

-lyrics from Mountain Girl, Blue Mountain - Dog Days
Blue Mountain on Wikipedia