The trees rustle under streams of moonlight.
Her husband’s snore louder than cracked branches
or furling waves shattering panes of glass.
Echoed declarations that she shelters
inside shrouds of comfortable silence
unwilling to break free of illusion.©

This poem was among the papers scratched out in pencil that I went through today in this decluttering mission. I had forgotten I had written it.

Day 29: The Next Album You’re Going to Listen To is the prompt from:

https://sandmanjazz.wordpress.com/2020/09/29/30-day-album-challenge-day-29/

My album choice came about because I was going through another box of papers. I uncovered my mother day letters that Amanda emailed while she was in college. They were summaries of her year from each Mother’s day to the next. I cried and laughed as I re-read those printed out emails from so very long ago. Which led to me to recalling her unusual entrance into this world and what was happening in our lives.

I had stage 4 cervical cancer and it had spread to my uterus. She was supposed to be delivered by c-section so they could remove everything at one time. Except, she decided to come earlier than her due date by eleven days. And when we were at the hospital, the doctor discovered she had flipped so her entrance was feet first. Her breech was kind of like a foreshadow of her life, she’s off and running once her feet hit the floor even forty years later.

Bet you’re trying to figure out what this album has to do with my story. My first husband, her dad was a huge fan of Waylon and wanted his daughter named Amanda. I agreed because knowing she was definitely going to be the light of my life.

She was indeed a force to be reckoned with our Amanda, with white blonde hair and blue eyes that sparkled like raindrops on a sunny day.

The letters I read earlier were also signed, the light of your life, always Amanda. That hasn’t changed much but than that’s always true of a youngest child in a parent’s eye much to the chagrin of the older siblings.

“I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.” Waylon Jennings

Amanda

Waylon Jennings

I’ve held it all inward, God knows, I’ve tried
But it’s an awful awakening in a country boy’s life
To look in the mirror in total surprise
At the hair on my shoulders and the age in my eyes

Amanda, light of my life
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife
Amanda, light of my life
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife

It’s a measure of people who don’t understand
The pleasures of life in a hillbilly band
I got my first guitar when I was fourteen
Well I finally made forty, still wearing jeans

Amanda, light of my life
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife
Amanda, light of my life
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Bob Mcdill

Amanda lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Spirit Music Group, BMG Rights Management

“A mother is a daughter’s best friend.” – Unknown

Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw Movement.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with one of the darker periods of Waylon’s life. It happened like this. “In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’s first recording session, and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens.

Before their performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza airplane from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, for himself, Jennings, and Tommy Allsup, to avoid the long bus trip to their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Following the Clear Lake show (which ended around midnight), Allsup lost a coin toss and gave up his seat on the charter plane to Ritchie Valens, while Jennings voluntarily gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, who was suffering from the flu and complaining about how cold and uncomfortable the tour bus was for a man of his size.^[30][31]

When Holly learned that his bandmates had given up their seats on the plane and had chosen to take the bus rather than fly, a friendly banter between Holly and Jennings ensued, and it would come back to haunt Jennings for decades to follow: Holly jokingly told Jennings, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up!” Jennings jokingly replied, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes!

Later that morning, Jennings’s family heard on the radio that “Buddy Holly and his band had been killed.” After calling his family, Jennings called Sky Corbin at KLLL from Fargo to say that he hadn’t been aboard the plane.^[34] The General Artists Corporation promised to pay for first-class tickets for Jennings and the band to attend Holly’s funeral in Lubbock in exchange for them playing that night in Moorhead.^[35] After the first show, they were initially denied their payment by the venue, but after Jennings’s persistence, they were paid.^[36] The flights were never paid,^[37] and Jennings and Allsup continued the tour for two more weeks, featuring Jennings as the lead singer.^[19] They were paid less than half of the original agreed salary, and upon returning to New York, Jennings put Holly’s guitar and amplifier in a locker in Grand Central Terminal and mailed the keys to Maria Elena Holly. Then, he returned to Lubbock.^[38]

In the early 1960s, Jennings wrote and recorded “The Stage (Stars in Heaven)”, a tribute to Valens, the Big Bopper and Holly, as well as Eddie Cochran, a young musician who died in a road accident a year after the plane crash.

For decades afterward, Jennings repeatedly admitted that he felt responsible for the crash that killed Holly. This sense of guilt precipitated bouts of substance abuse through much of Jennings’s career. ” ~

Later that morning, Jennings’s family heard on the radio that “Buddy Holly and his band had been killed.” After calling his family, Jennings called Sky Corbin at KLLL from Fargo to say that he hadn’t been aboard the plane.^[34] The General Artists Corporation promised to pay for first-class tickets for Jennings and the band to attend Holly’s funeral in Lubbock in exchange for them playing that night in Moorhead.^[35] After the first show, they were initially denied their payment by the venue, but after Jennings’s persistence, they were paid.^[36] The flights were never paid,^[37] and Jennings and Allsup continued the tour for two more weeks, featuring Jennings as the lead singer.^[19] They were paid less than half of the original agreed salary, and upon returning to New York, Jennings put Holly’s guitar and amplifier in a locker in Grand Central Terminal and mailed the keys to Maria Elena Holly. Then, he returned to Lubbock.^[38]

In the early 1960s, Jennings wrote and recorded “The Stage (Stars in Heaven)”, a tribute to Valens, the Big Bopper and Holly, as well as Eddie Cochran, a young musician who died in a road accident a year after the plane crash.

For decades afterward, Jennings repeatedly admitted that he felt responsible for the crash that killed Holly. This sense of guilt precipitated bouts of substance abuse through much of Jennings’s career.” ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waylon_Jennings

Do you remember the Dukes of Hazzard? My son’s used to beg to stay up later on a school night to watch that show. Waylon was the narrator or balladeer as he liked to be called. Shortly after that time In the mid-1980s, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Nelson, and Jennings formed a successful group called the Highwaymen.