Peachtree Road

Southerners sort of fluff up our winter feathers when springs gets here and we turn our collective faces toward the coming of warm weather. Sure there will be the old Easter Snap and we will have to pull out the hoodies one more time, but summer is coming. This morning I was listening to Elton Johns "Peachtree Road" CD. And if you are like one of my ex friends who once told me that 'I don't listen to him cause he's gay' then you might as well stop reading now. That is one of the stupidest statements I have ever heard. The lyrics of Elton Johns songs are written by Bernie Taupin, one of the best poets around today. Anyway back to the subject at hand. One of the songs on the album is called Porch Swing in Tupelo and it about life in the south. All of the phrases brings to mind a slice of the south especially in the summer. He sings of a porch swing on a hot afternoon, the Natchez Trace and the State of Grace in reference to Graceland. All of those have memories if you are a Southerner. So do 'dinner on the grounds, rolling down the Mississippi headin' back in time', and the saying that my grandmother used to use to express surprise, hush your mouth! If some of that doesn't stir your southern roots then you are not a southerner and it's all over your head anyway. The songs speaks of grease monkeys working under the shade trees. Do you know what that is? And of small towns that close on Sunday cause everyone's in church. That's not the case everywhere and is unique in the south. Oh and the 'change a minute' weather that was fair and sunny fifteen minutes ago and is now windy and cloudy. I like spring and the song stirred up memories of past summers and perhaps a past time. I like 'the old south all around me' and hope that we 'please don't change things too much'.