Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Down-Home Words from Down-Home Albertans

The snow has fallen in Alberta today but I'm still thinking fondly of warmer weather, harvest-time, the machines that are part of our life, and the good memories we make every year.

On the Combine
Brad Rempel/Paul Brandt

John Deere lunch kit and a thermos full of Kool-Aid
September harvest and I missed another school day
14 hours worth of work and dirt were lessons learned
         waist deep in those fields of gold
         7 tons of steel and a twelve-year-old
workin’ hard just to keep it in a straight line
                ...on the combine

hand-me-down overalls and an a.m. radio
try to get it right the first time and take it slow
Alabama singing “in a hurry and I don’t know why”
         black clouds and it starts to rain
         runnin’ short on time, and out of faith
nothin’ you can do but pray for the sun to shine
                ...on the combine

eighty acres and a Friday night
first date dinner in the cab beneath the moonlight
cushion on a five-gallon pail riding shotgun
         time goes by like those waves of grain
         but I remember it like yesterday
where I fell in love for the first time
                ...on the combine

every time I climb that ladder
it takes me back to things that matter

we’re still workin’ hard just to keep it in a straight line
         nothin’ you can do but pray for the sun to shine
                  where I fell in love, in love for the first time
                         ...on the combine.
                                                                

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