THis is from an e-mail I sent to my friend John. We were talking about Tom Waits and how we both have always been attracted to the seedy side of town. This is remembering the days when I lived on the seedy side of town.

When I first moved to Stamford, where I lived for over 30 years, I brought everything I owned in the back seat and trunk of my friend's Peugot. It only took one trip. I moved up from New York City where I was living in a one room "apartment." I found an apartment in Stamford and carried my stuff up the stairs. When it got dark that first night, I went to turn on the lights, and discovered that there weren't any light fixtures. The only light I had was in the bathroom. I had no money so I had to wait for my first paycheck in order to buy an old floor lamp at a junk shop in the seedy section of town. It was awhile before I even had a piece of foam rubber to sleep on. Once it got dark and I tired of sitting on the toilet, reading, I'd sit by the window looking down onto the street in the dark and play my guitar.

When I was living in New York, I used to take the subway over to Hoboken to my friend Luke's apartment, which was larger than my one-roomer, but not in the classiest section of town. If there was a classier section of Hoboken. In those days, we didn't have much, but we had all that we needed. Thinkg of those nights, looking out the window at the kids playing on the street, I wrote this song:

A five flight walkup to a cold water flat
A couple of chairs and an old alley cat
A five string banjo and a bottle of wine
We played home-made music that sounded so fine

CHORUS:

    Now the days get shorter and the nights are so long
    And I sit by my window and I write you this song
    Down on the street you can hear the kids sing
    It's such a long time from winter to spring

Up on the roof in the dead of night
Look over the river at the big city lights
Maxwell House Coffee's in yellows and blues
We had all to be gained, and not much to lose

If we had money we'd stop for a beer
Or walk by the water and sit on the pier
Sit and we'd talk 'till there's no more to say
We never needed words anyway

I know there were times when nothing went right
Sometimes we sat up most all of the night
You had your troubles, God knows I had mine
But still we had us one Hell of a time

    Winter to Spring, words and music by Jerry Rasmussen

(Maxwell House Coffee had a large factory on the banks of the river, and you could see it steaming away like a twenty story coffee pot, when we were up on the roof at night. I remember the tantalzing smell of freshly roasted coffee. I have no idea whether or not we did smell it. I'll have to ask Luke. Not that it makes any difference. The truth isn't always accurate.

I put this song on my Back When I Was Young CD.

Jerry