Well goddamn. This must really be some of my better crap (I just said it was to needle Martin a little.)I was just hoping not to get on your bad side Dianavan--it makes me blush to be considered sane, I don't get that a lot.

Jimmyt, I haven't talked to you much since that little party in cyberspace with Little Hawk. We met poorly, but it was all right. I'm glad to share any common ground with you, and posted my pictures just on your account. Yeah, I'm an old fashioned liberal, but being brought up that way naturally makes one want to think a little the other direction. I'm still trying to get the big picture, and I really enjoy talking to people with different views.

   Except when they throw out a bumper-sticker and walk off. But then sometimes one has to joke around a bit to get warmed up, I guess. It's hard to hit just the right degree of rudeness to be fun and stir people up--but I'm glad that people do it, because people come out a little more, and it's good to have a place to lose your temper with people, isn't it? God, it's like that rush when you quit a job.

   It must be hard to be a conservative on a folk music forum. If you really knew all the people it would probably be different.

   I guess my bumper sticker for this thread is lately I feel pretty lucky, and I'd like to think that the few little half-decent things one can do will add up, like raindrops making a flood. No--better scratch that one. Um, I'll have to get back to it.

My Dad went to Berea, here in Ky, where everyone works to go to college. He grew up about 15 miles from Black Mountain, the other experimental college, but it wasn't interested in the locals,or the community, and it's long gone. I think Billy Graham owns it now. My wife and I wanted to go to Berea, and looked into it, but we had a little too much money from our parents. I guess we were disadvantaged, in a way.

    I should admit I didn't have to work in college--it was all my parents wanted for us. Well, and that we'd be writers (no luck there). I was a High-school drop-out, I did have a 3.89 college average, but without much else to worry about, which is huge. I have never had a job since college that didn't involve some heavy lifting. I like doing it, but I'm getting old. I have a marriage that is a partnership, and I'm lucky to, because I'd most likely be dead by now without it. My wife has no idea what a good person she is and I don't want her to find out. That's my deal.