Happy Father's Day - The Randall Knife (Guy Clark)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RANDALL KNIFE (Guy Clark)
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 07:25 AM

Just a Happy Father's Day wish from one father to another. In honor of the day, I offer Guy Clark's "The Randall Knife".

My father had a Randall knife,
My mother gave it to him,
When he went off to World War Two,
To save us all from ruin.
If you've ever held a Randall knife,
Then you know my father well.
If a better blade was ever made,
It was probably forged in hell.

My father was a good man,
A lawyer by his trade,
And only once did I ever see,
Him misuse the blade.
It almost cut his thumb off,
When he took it for a tool.
The knife was made for darker things,
And you could not bend the rules.

He let me take it camping once,
On a Boy Scour jamboree,
And I broke a half an inch off,
Trying to stick it in a tree.
I hid it from him for a while,
But the knife and he were one.
He put it in his bottom drawer,
Without a hard word one.

There it slept and there it stayed,
For twenty some odd years.
Sort of like Excalibur,
Except waiting for a tear.

My father died when I was forty,
And I couldn't find a say to cry.
Not because I didn't love him,
Not because he didn't try.
I'd cried for every lesser thing,
Whiskey, pain, and beauty,
But he deserved a better tear,
And I was not quite ready.

So we took his ashes out to sea,
And poured 'em off the stern,
And threw the roses in the wake,
Of everything we'd learned.
When we got back to the house,
They asked me what I wanted.
Not the lawbooks, not the watch,
I need the things he's haunted.
My hand burned for the Randall knife,
There in the bottom drawer.
And I found a tear for my father's life,
And all that it stood for.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: bbc
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 08:44 AM

I most appreciate the dads who stay to raise their kids w/ the family intact, but send my best wishes & appreciation to all of you men who are choosing to father & are doing the best you can w/ kids of your blood or your heart.

Thinking of you today & praying that God will give you the strength, the wisdom, & the patience to help raise the next generation!

love,

bbc

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: Banjer
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 09:38 AM

I'm sitting here listening to my Fathers Day present from my wife. A CD titled "An Historic Reunion - Sara and Maybelle Carter, The Original Carter Sisters" By Koch, originally released as Columbia CS9361. Currently playing is 'The Hand That Rocks The Cradle'

It don't get a lot better than this!!

Hope all you others have as good a day as mine is!!

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 09:51 AM

Great Thread already................

RiB my friend, you are really selling me on Guy Clark!!!The CD is wearing out and that song you posted is just great!!! Hope you and Marge enjoy the day!

bbc (and Duane)...that's a beautiful sentiment and for all my over the top kind of humor, I also sincerely appreciate compassion, understanding and friends. As a Dad of children of the heart, my best to you and Duane this Father's Day.

General Banj......you're right, it don't get much better! You have a great CD and family too. Happy Dad's Day.

catspaw

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 10:25 AM

Well, Rog is still a'bed. Lightening hit the microwave site near Cheyenne and he had to go there last night at 530p. Got home at 2a. I shall try to keep the cockatiel, C-More, quiet, as well as the rest of the critters, so that he may sleep a good long while; catch up on his rest. The only "kid" he has at home to contend with now is Merlee, the border collie, who gets really out of sorts when his "dad's" routine gets upset. He's just dying to go in there, jump up on the bed, and wake him up with a big wet kiss, just like a little kid. (He just gave up and went under the bed, to sleep in disgust!)

The man has been a wonderful father to my three whom he adopted after we married almost 20 yrs. ago. Our kids have told me many times how special he is to them and how much they appreciate all that he has done. This is especially meaningful coming from our son, Colin, as he was the oldest (9 yrs.) when we got together.

Whatever you might be a father to, children, pets, etc., I wish for you all the very best, today and always.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: bet
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 11:54 AM

Stay ture to your kids! You may never know how much you really mean to them. Remembering lost Father's Days.

Happy Father's Day to all you Mudcatters. bet

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 12:49 PM

my kid..(just 17 now)..noticed I was out of my favorite honey (from New Zealand) and got me two jars..packed 'em in a kleenex box surrounded by the original tissues..with a note done in a fancy font from the computer...couldn't have been a better present. Makes me think I did 'something' right..(oh...he was gonna mow the yard, too...but our drought seems to have ended!)

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: Dave Swan
Date: 20 Jun 99 - 02:34 PM

Here's a true story, for a change. I didn't know this about my father until a few years ago. He's eighty now, and still tough.The night I was conceived, my dad was summoned to my mother's bed by a sheriff's posse. The state of infertility treatment was primitive in the 50's,so I don't know whether the entrails of a chicken were read, or my Druid grandmother saw something, but dad was on a hunting trip when something said "Tonight's the night." My grandfather called his buddy, the sheriff of that rural California county, and asked him to find the hunting son-in-law. The posse arrived late in the evening, that point in a hunter's day when the coals and the whiskey have burned low. Dad, a ringer for Lee van Cleef, saddled up, rode into town with some giggling deputies, and got the job done. Nine years and a few days after my brother, I showed up. Thanks for taking the ride dad.

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: Easy Rider
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 09:19 AM

Father's Day! Let me see...

Isn't that the day where your kids take you to a movie THEY want to see, and YOU PAY, and then they take you to a restaurant THEY want to eat in, and YOU PAY, and they give you presents that YOU gave them the money to buy?

All in all, this was my very first Father's Day (my new daughter is 23 years old!), and I had a wonderful time. I'm a very lucky guy!

EZR

Subject: RE: Happy Father's Day
From: Legal Eagle
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 04:31 PM

Nice to see a song in which the lawyer is not a villain