we'll meet again someday on the avenue

Driving across America is a good way to see it.

Now that they've made air travel such a misery, it didn't surprise me to read a news story which said bus travel was making a comeback in popularity.  And of course if you just drive your own vehicle, you can go at your own pace and select your route. ...

Tonight a young lady who used to work in the same place where I work every day came in and said she was quitting to move to Belgrade, Minnesota.

(Was thinking -- Bell-gray?  Belgrade?...)  When people leave to drive across America -- or at least a part of it -- to go someplace I wonder and imagine what their life and work will be like -- there, in the new place.  And when people drive across a chunk of America to come here and work, I wonder -- and hope -- that they achieve their goals and are happy here, and not sorry they came. ...

Looking up Belgrade, Minnesota in the Free Encyclopedia, I see that it has a -- water tower.  A pickup truck, a car, a street.  A museum -- whoa!  the Belgrade Centennial Museum.

The town is named after the capital of Serbia.

People coming into your workplace; and people going out of it.  People come into your life, & go out of it.  (If anyone told you before you started out, all the stuff to watch out for in the world, you'd never Do Anything....)

People criss-crossing America seeking a better life situation ("My family's there," and "I have a job in a bar, to start") makes me think of this song --

Early one mornin' the sun was shinin'
I was layin' in bed
Wond'rin' if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues
gettin' through
Tangled up in blue

She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder
"We'll meet again someday
on the avenue"
Tangled up in blue

I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
Right outside of Delacroix
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind,
and I just grew
Tangled up in blue

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin' at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
and later on as the crowd thinned out
I's just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, "Don't I know your name?"
I muttered somethin' underneath my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
of my shoe
Tangled up in blue

She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
"I thought you'd never say hello," she said
"You look like the silent type"
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
from me to you
Tangled up in blue

I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés at night
And revolution in the air
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died
She had to sell everything she owned
and froze up inside
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin' on
like a bird that flew
Tangled up in blue

So now I'm goin' back again
I got to get to her somehow
All the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenters' wives
Don't know how it all got started
I don't know what they're doin' with their lives
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point
of view
Tangled up in blue

--------------------------
{"Tangled Up In Blue" -- Bob Dylan -- Copyright 1974 by Ram's Horn Music, and renewed 2002}

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