WALKIN' DOWN THE LINE

Well, I’m walkin’ down the line

I’m walkin’ down the line

An’ I’m walkin’ down the line

My feet’ll be a-flyin’

To tell about my troubled mind

I got a heavy-headed gal

I got a heavy-headed gal

I got a heavy-headed gal

She ain’t a-feelin’ well

When she’s better only time will tell

Well, I’m walkin’ down the line

I’m walkin’ down the line

An’ I’m walkin’ down the line

My feet’ll be a-flyin’

To tell about my troubled mind

My money comes and goes

My money comes and goes

My money comes and goes

And rolls and flows and rolls and flows

Through the holes in the pockets in my clothes

Well, I’m walkin’ down the line

I’m walkin’ down the line

An’ I’m walkin’ down the line

My feet’ll be a-flyin’

To tell about my troubled mind

I see the morning light

I see the morning light

Well, it’s not because

I’m an early riser

I didn’t go to sleep last night

Well, I’m walkin’ down the line

I’m walkin’ down the line

An’ I’m walkin’ down the line

My feet’ll be a-flyin’

To tell about my troubled mind

I got my walkin’ shoes

I got my walkin’ shoes

I got my walkin’ shoes

An’ I ain’t a-gonna lose

I believe I got the walkin’ blues

Well, I’m walkin’ down the line

I’m walkin’ down the line

An’ I’m walkin’ down the line

My feet’ll be a-flyin’

To tell about my troubled mind

The Dillards: Walkin' Down The Line (Link)

Arlo Guthrie: Walkin' Down The Line (Link)

Ricky Nelson: Walkin' Down The Line (Link)

Glen Campbell: Walkin' Down The Line (Link) 

Artworks by Richard Long

What's My Line? (Link. Period.)
  

FAMILY BUSINESS

I cannot confirm this through personal observation or knowledge based on research, but I have been told that my family believed in using private detectives to obtain information about people and things. 


The only P.I. I ever knew well personally was a colleague of mine at the insurance company.  His job was to ferret out fraudulent claims by photographing people who claimed severe injury, or even paralysis, dancing at weddings, and uncovering other forms of deceit.  He was a curious fellow, uniquely entertaining, unlike the grimmer police detectives I met working as an Assistant D.A. in Brooklyn.


I have no interest in ever engaging a private detective's services.  But I believe I would be a good P.I. if I tried my hand at it and that Caroline and Jane would be equally adept. I would love to see our names written backwards across a broad glass window.

John Cale: Evidence (Link)

CHILLY SEASON FRAGMENT (ZEN HUMORESQUE)

SNOW

You're fluffy and white.

Also a beautiful sight.

You're the best season.

Jane wrote this haiku to fulfill a third grade class assignment at Tuxedo Park School many years ago.  Her teacher, Trudy Rodin, was so taken with it that she entered the haiku in a national poetry writing competition for pre-college students, and our family was surprised (we didn’t know that Mrs. Rodin had done this) and delighted to learn that Jane’s poem was selected for publication in a hardbound collection of prize-winning poems.  Naturally, we ordered several copies.

When the book arrived, we excitedly turned to the table of contents and then quickly to the page where Jane’s poem appeared.  Immediately (it doesn’t take a long time to read a haiku) and collectively, there was a sharp intake of breath. 

The poem on the page read:

 SNOW

You're fluffy and white.

Also a beautiful sight.

You are the best season.

As you can see, the editors added an extra syllable in line 3, destroying the 5/7/5 structure.  It’s best, I think, to try to see these things as funny, if you can, either in an Occidental or a Zen sort of way.  

I uncovered the original Tuxedo Park School “Pinecone Magazine” edition of “Snow” at home the other day.  I'd like to think that this story, along with the assorted contemporary Tokyo images and Slapp Happy’s splendid “Haiku,” will add to your enjoyment of today.

Slapp Happy: Haiku (Link)