walkin' the floor over you

        In the movie Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn's husband Doolittle buys her a guitar as an anniversary present:  she is surprised, and kind of dismayed.  She says to him, "I can't play that thing!"

He answers, "Most people can't, without they learn how first, god-da..."

        "You aren't too ignorant to learn, are ya?"

        I am fascinated and entertained by the way he uses the language - "most people can't without they learn how first..."        

        The word "without" in that position in the sentence.

        We wouldn't use it like that in all parts of America, but I guess in parts of Kentucky, they do.

 

A little later in the movie, Loretta and Doolittle take their four little children with them to a recording studio to make Loretta's first record - a song she wrote herself, called "Honky-Tonk Girl."

        In the car on the way there, Doolittle explains, "The thing that's gonna give you the edge is gettin' yourself a record.  And the next step's even more important than that, and that's gettin' people to play the dad-burn thing.  

        But right now, what you and me have to worry about, is you makin' the best doggone record you can.  It all depends on that, darlin'."

Loretta - "Boy! Doo, I didn't know you knew so much about the music business."

Doo - "I don't.  I'm just figuring it out as I go along, listening to people talk."

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        A cool thing about this movie is, it has classic country singer Ernest Tubb playing himself.  The photograph down at the bottom of this post is of the actress Sissy Spacek playing Loretta Lynn in the film, and Ernest Tubb as himself.

Go on You Tube and type in

Ernest Tubb, walking the floor over you

Select your video and play-and-enjoy

I'm walkin' the floor over you,

I can't sleep a wink, that is true,

I'm hoping and I'm praying

As my heart breaks right in two,

Walkin' the floor over you...

   

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leaving Butcher Hollow

 
Bob Dylan and The Band

The character in Coal Miner's Daughter that gives the advice, "coal mine, moonshine, or move on down the line" was portrayed by the actor William Sanderson.

        You might have seen him in the 1980s situation-comedy Newhart:  he and two other guys would walk in the room and Sanderson's character would say, "Hi, I'm Larry, and this is my brother Daryl, and this here's my other brother Daryl."

Another aspect of the movie which I found interesting is, Loretta Lynn's father is portrayed by Levon Helm, who is better known as drummer for The Band, than as an actor, but he played the hell out of this role.

        In the movie, after Loretta and Doolittle Lynn have been married for a short time, they separate, then meet up and Doo tells her, "I'm leavin' Kentucky."  He's going out west to Washington state and find a job.

He says, "There ain't nothin' for me in Kentucky, Loretta.  Except a chest full of coal dust and bein' a old man, time I'm forty; ask your daddy."

He says, You got to come with me; I love ya, and he tells her he's going to send for her to come out and join him as soon as he has the money.

I kind of wondered why he picked Washington state.  To get far away from Kentucky?  Go any further, he'd be in the Pacific Ocean.

        When Coal Miner's Daughter came out in 1980, I decided I wanted to see it based on a review I read in The New Yorker magazine - probably written by Pauline Kael.  I remember it said the story-telling style in the film was, "This happened, then this happened, then this happened...."

Levon Helm and Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

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advice from a moonshine entrepreneur

 

In the movie Coal Miner's Daughter, the character pictured above advises Doolittle Lynn, "If you're born in the mountains, you've got three choices:  coal mine; moonshine; or Get on down the line...."

        The early part of this story describes, and reflects, aspects of life in rural Kentucky in the post-World War II era.  Doolittle is back from the Army, and Loretta Webb is just shy of 14 years old when they meet.

There's a kind of depressive atmosphere to some extent - a feeling that these people are oppressed and they believe they can't get out from under the system that oppresses them.

        In one scene Loretta is at home with her parents and siblings.  Her mother takes a few moments to "read" some tea leaves at the bottom of a cup.  She tells her husband, "Bad times is a-comin'" and he replies, "Well, we don't need no fortune-teller to know that." 

        Pessimism.

        Superstition.

        Coal mine; moonshine; or get on down the line.

The viewer might think, "Be more optimistic; encourage one another; get a plan.  This is America, where anything is possible!" - But then also, maybe generational poverty and a local economy with few opportunities does a number on people, and society, that we don't fully understand if we aren't sociologists....

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Babylon at bay

 In that song, "End Of The Line" by the Traveling Wilburys, they mention "Purple Haze." 

        I was wondering if that's a song - I've heard the phrase "purple haze" so typed it on You Tube, and yes, that's a Jimi Hendrix song.

        Then I wondered if I have heard that song, so I played it - Oh yes, I have heard that many times, I just didn't know the title of it.

Bringing up "Purple Haze" on You Tube brought a nearby video on a channel called "Behind The Song" talking about a Bob Dylan song that Jimi Hendrix recorded:  "All Along The Watchtower."

        The video begins with a young lady reading a script - the first thing she says is, "Imagine you're Bob Dylan."

        Okay.

She discusses Jimi Hendrix's process in deciding he wanted to record the Dylan song:  "When Dylan sang his lines about princes keeping the view on the watchtower, Hendrix understood that to be him, and Dylan, and the musicians and poets of the world holding Babylon - the oppressive, warring, and impure Babylon - at bay."

Bob Dylan was in the Traveling Wilburys, along with George Harrison (the Beatles), Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne (Electric Light Orchestra).

Jimi Hendrix; Mick Jagger

-30-

end of the line

 

On You Tube, type in

end of the line, Traveling Wilburys

... and Play!

Well, it's all right - riding around in the breeze

Well, it's all right - if you live the life you please

Well, it's all right - doing the best you can

Well, it's all right - as long as you lend a hand

You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring (at the end of the line)

Waiting for someone to tell you everything (at the end of the line)

Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring (at the end of the line)

Maybe a diamond ring

Well, it's all right - even if they say you're wrong

Well, it's all right, sometimes you gotta be strong

Well, it's all right - as long as you got somewhere to lay

Well, it's all right, every day is Judgment Day

Maybe somewhere down the road a-ways (at the end of the line)

You'll think of me and wonder where I am these days (at the end of the line)

Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (at the end of the line)

Purple Haze

Well, it's all right - even when push comes to shove

Well, it's all right - if you got someone to love

Well, it's all right, everything'll work out fine

Well, it's all right - we're going to the end of the line

Don't have to be ashamed of the car I drive (at the end of the line)

I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive (at the end of the line)

It don't matter if you're by my side (at the end of the line)

I'm satisfied

Well, it's all right - even if you're old and gray

Well, it's all right, you still got something to say

Well it's all right - remember to live and let live

Well, it's all right - the best you can do is forgive

Well, it's all right (all right), riding around on the breeze

Well, it's all right (all right), if you live the life you please

Well, it's all right - even if the sun don't shine

Well, it's all right (all right), we're going to the end of the line

-30-

they threw their arms around me

 In the series titled Tricky Dick, in Episode 4, there's a sequence that begins with words on-screen:

-------------- Seven days after the Watergate hearings begin, the President hosts former prisoners of war at the White House.

______________________

        And then there's a recorded phone call with Pres. Nixon talking about the event.  You don't know with whom he is speaking - it doesn't say, but you hear Nixon:

------------- "My God, the White House has never seen a party like this.  Believe me.

You should have seen the women.  

Negro girls and others.

Good God they threw their arms around me, kissed me.

[a little laugh]

The damnedest thing I ever saw!"

------------------------------------

        He was unaccustomed to the "rock star treatment."

        The young wives, of course, must have been overjoyed to have their husbands return home alive, and once somebody spontaneously hugged and kissed the president, others followed.

The tone of Nixon's voice in that conversation was so amusing, and kind of warms the heart, because he sounds like he was startled, taken aback by the effusive display of emotion, also astonished, and unexpectedly delighted, though a little shy about it, too.

(This happened in the spring of 1973.  Nixon was born in 1913, so he had turned 60 years old, that January.  In the early 1970s, people were starting to say "black" instead of "Negro" - but for a person of Nixon's generation, it isn't surprising that he was still saying "Negro."  And that was never a "bad word," it was not a racial epithet, it was a gentle, polite, civilized word.

        Language evolves, and that word was simply going out of style.

        Now, it doesn't seem like "black" has really gone out of style, but a lot of people have replaced it with "African American.")

------------------------ "Good God, they threw their arms around me, kissed me...."

He was clearly amazed.

-30-

consultations for health and history

         A recurring pain in my left knee was puzzling me and making me tired, but I think I know what to do.

        Today I had the opportunity to consult someone who spends much of his work-day on his feet - a mechanic who maintains machines; my theory was keep feet and legs moving more, don't let them be stationary for too long. (It seems like I heard the "blood pools" in your joints, or muscles, or something. ...)

He thought my idea is right, to move often - just a little chill, low-impact aerobics.

(Never consult doctors; only mechanics....Ha)

        Maybe we could bring in an M.D. to fix the machines....

-------------------------------------------------------

I intended to listen to that Vietnam War video again and contemplate and discuss the information, but today I don't have enough energy for knee-questions and the Vietnam War.

Why do I think about this?

The Vietnam War over-hung my whole childhood - sometimes I thought it would go on forever.

        My best friend in junior high, Robin, and I wore POW bracelets.  You were supposed to wear it, and only take it off when the prisoner-of-war was released.  The name on mine was Toomey - that was his last name.

a Mekong Delta painting

-30-

"four more years!"

 I typed on this blog Thursday of this past week, that Richard Nixon, when President, signed the bill to create the Environmental Protection Agency, and he signed the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) - to guarantee equal rights for women.

        And then I said he did the right thing when he resigned.

...I didn't mean to imply that he should resign because of supporting the 

EPA

and the

ERA.

I was trying to list good things that Nixon did, as president.  (And I'm sure he did some other good things, the ones I  mentioned were just off the top of my head.)

Resigning in 1974 was the right thing, because the Watergate break-in and associated "dirty tricks" had broken wide open with tape-recorded conversations, etc., and the people were calling for impeachment, and Nixon didn't have the votes to prevent it.

        Some people might say he resigned because he knew he didn't have the votes to support him staying in office, and that doesn't constitute "doing the right thing" - he just resigned because he didn't have the numbers.

To me, it was still the right thing to do, and he did it, and so I give him credit for that.

------------------------------------------------

        About 19 years after Nixon's resignation, I was working as a lobbyist for a statewide association of public schools, and the governor took a position on school funding that was OK, and kind of helpful, so I said, "Terrific!" - and one of the people who had just recently been elected to the board of directors of my association said to me that the governor took that position for the wrong reasons.

        And I said, regardless of reasons, he did something, & it's good, for us, and for all schools, actually.  So - good, right?

But no - he had to be mad.

And several years after that, he started attacking me.  Because he couldn't "get-at" the governor.  LOL.

I remember once, he told me his wife worked at a manufacturing plant in our state's biggest town.  He said she liked working there.

        (And I sort of half-realized then, and later on, realized more fully, that his wife probably liked working there because it gave her a chance to get away from him....)

****************************

I think when a politician does the right thing, that's good, we mustn't get too "picky" about what their reasons might be.

-30-

why did the US go to war with Vietnam...

 

Listening to Nixon videos, I was thinking about the Vietnam War and trying to understand more about that, and I found on You Tube a video titled

Why Did US Go to War with Vietnam

uploader / channel:  Captivating History

        It's a good video.  Very informative.

At 5:00 - 6:02, I think that part refers to the information in the Pentagon Papers.

That the war was going to be un-winnable, because it would be fought in villages.

-30-

women's rights; environmental protection

 

President Nixon on the day he resigned, in August 1974

On Amazon Prime now, is a documentary titled "1968:  The Year That Changed America."  It's good - worth watching.

During Nixon's presidency, he signed onto the EPA - the Environmental Protection Agency, and the ERA - the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal rights for women.

When he resigned the presidency in 1974, he did the right thing.

I recently watched on You Tube, an interview with filmmaker Woody Allen, where the interviewer asked him, Do you think democracy in America is over because of Donald Trump? - and Woody Allen answered, "No, his term will end, and - uh - you know - we'll elect someone else..."

        The journalist asked him about the mayoral election in New York City - he said he is going to vote for Cuomo, because he has the most experience, & can do the best job.

Andrew Cuomo

-30-

"talk is dangerous"

 

John Ehrlichman

[from the Nixon tapes]

Ehrlichman:  We have one little operation that aborted out in Los Angeles...which, uh, I think it's better that you don't know about.

Nixon:  Agreed.

Ehrlichman:  But, uh...we've got some dirty tricks on the way that may pay off.

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        See?!  Nixon kept talking, with his aides around him, agreeing with him, going along... and he created the Watergate quagmire, with his own words, from his imagination.  The Pentagon Papers incident was not about him.

It reminds me of a scene in the 1981 film Body Heat:

The secret lovers, Ned Racine and Matty Walker, are talking about how her husband Edmund got so rich...

Matty:

Ned, it scares me to talk about these things.

Ned:

Why?

Matty:

You know.

Ned:

No I don't.

Matty:

Well let's just not.  Let's just not think about all he's got.

Ned:

Wait a minute, Matty.  Tell me exactly what it is that frightens you.

Matty:

I'm afraid because - when I think about it, I wish he'd die.  It's really what I want.  It's horrible, and it's ugly, and it's what I most want.

Ned:

It's where we're at, isn't it? ... It's what we're both thinking, how good it would be for us if he was gone.  It'd be real sweet for us....

Matty:

No, no, Ned, don't.  Don't talk about it.  Talk is dangerous.  Sometimes it makes things happen.  It makes them real. ...

-30-

a mood of panic and despair

 

[at right] Dwight Chapin, White House Appointments Secretary in Nixon administration

"He took on this self-survival cloak.  And that led to other things happening."

Mr. Chapin says this, describing Pres. Nixon at the time the Pentagon Papers were leaked to newspapers.

A self-survival cloak.

It led to other things happening. (Watergate break-in)

*

cloak

It's a word.

We don't use it very much in the modern era.

-------- [from conversations Pres. Nixon had tape-recorded in the Oval Office] --

Nixon:  I want you to find me a man.  I've got to have one.  I've got to have one.  A man who can work directly with me on this whole situation.  I want somebody who is just as tough as I am, for a change.

We're up against an enemy, a conspiracy.  They're using any means.  We are going to Use. Any. Means.

[voice of Charles Colson, Special Counsel to Nixon]

There was a mood of panic and despair.  Nixon wanted to bring in a group of people who would do - security, these kind of black-bag jobs.  And told me to do whatever it took.  That really led to the creation of the "plumbers."

----------------------------- [words typed on the screen] -- In the summer of 1971, Nixon establishes a covert special investigations unit called "The White House Plumbers."

Their mission is to stop leaks and undermine Nixon's political opponents.

---------------------------------------------------------------

-30-

"we'll just take some chances"

 Nixon:  It's a conspiracy, Bob.  What do you think?

Haldeman:  Absolutely.

Nixon:  Goddammit.  If they're going to go to this length, we're gonna fight with everything we've got.  We'll just take some chances.

-------------------------------------------------

[voice of Dwight Chapin]

Was Nixon paranoid?  Yes.  And - he took on this self-survival cloak.  And that led to other things happening.

-------------------------------------------------

        That's what caught my attention, and what I wanted to talk about. - The idea that President Nixon's reaction to the Pentagon Papers actually led to the whole Watergate incident.

        He gets all excited and upset, and it really isn't even his problem.

        He seems to take the "leak" of the Pentagon Papers personally.  But it isn't about him.

        (Something I notice when I listen to Nixon speak is, he refers to himself a lot.  

        I don't say that as a criticism, really.  Maybe all of us humans are a little bit self-obsessed at times.  But if I was Nixon's speechwriter, I would have put some other stuff in there for him to say, instead.)

When you listen to those conversations right after the Pentagon Papers' publication, you can hear the president kind of like - creating an alternate reality, by talking.  

        If you think about it, you can notice people do that sometimes.  They keep talking and the more they talk, the more they paint a picture which may or may not be true.

He is really - upsetting himself.  Making up a private war against his "enemies."  In his imagination.  

In the 1995 film Nixon, the president's wife says to him, "It's as if you're at war with the whole world!"

-30-