Once On A Blue Moon!!!!! (PART V

It occurred to me, speaking with that young man, traveling with his young son to Whitefish, that if there were ever a time, when all the population of our country could be satisfied, to be able to get exactly what they believed they needed in terms of health care, it could be now! No one should fall through the crack, its time we see health care as a right, not. something only afforded to the privileged! The war on poverty, a battle waged forty years ago, a war that should have been won, it was the one battle, we could have won! Over the last decade, all of the excess, the greed, the averest, all came back, and bit us in the ass! I don’t know about you, but I’m still feeling the pain, I’m reminded of how necessary, it is for us to change! Riding up on that horrible train, I boarded in Pittsburgh, I dozed, toe to toe, stretched out over some seats, in the observation car, along with Diana. She was having issues with that train as well, as I would find out later, the first we spoke, was at Caribou Coffee in Chicago. The ride had beat us both up, pretty good, I think at the time, she was just trying, to put all the pieces together from the night before. She kept her distance, we were cordial, she saw some of my drama on that train into Chicago, the first we really talked, was over a “Big Sky Picnic Diner.” Rob had these delivered to our train in Haver, Montana, complete with a Montana Blueberry Desert. Something good certainly needs to be said about Rob, the gentleman working the Cafe Car, right away, he let us know we were riding on the party train to Portland, everyone working this train is nice, funny thing, Nice Gets Nice. So Diana and I started talking, she asked if I had seen all that strange stuff on that train, coming up from Pittsburgh, she asked if I had seen that man pacing, talking on a cell, his head wrapped, nervous throughout the night, the man, off by himself, his whole head covered with fabric. My issues had been simple, a couple of reasonable request I had made to the car attendant, each time, met with a !!!NO!!! I get pissed off easy, let me re phrase, this is just the kinda stuff, that pisses me off, you know, it ain’t that hard to be nice. In my true to form, blunt way, I told that car attendant, he was a real piece of work, these days, you really got to watch what you say. Don’t think, I could do to good, in these kind of situations, at twenty years younger. I figured with this guy, I should deal with him, as if he were a cop, to understand, that anything I said to him, he would use against me, that this was the time for him to speak, that my time will come a little later on. Diana said she couldn’t understand why I was getting any grief from this guy anyhow, with all the sketchy happenings on that train, passengers disappearing from the train, through the night, that he really didn’t need to be messing with me. What I’ve got to watch, is when most people see a little smoke, they run to get some water, myself, my first instinct, is to run and get gasoline. I can remember, when I learned that about me, when it was pointed out to me, I’m glad I learned it when I did, I could have used it sooner! Now hold that thought, if there ever was a time for gasoline, I guess that rolling poker game on the Southwest Chief, would have been the perfect candidate. I got knowing Irving, pretty good, right off, we broke some bread, no really, tomato, basil, sour dough, we both broke off a knuckle. Irving had been at LA Union Station all day, fired off a cruise ship, a horn player, said it was a blessing, that he was fired In Country, that he would be happy, being home for Christmas. Irving told me of his Mother. He is a large black man, he said his Mother, was a small german girl, that he was born in prison. The woman who raised him, kept a big house, there were lots of kids growing up in that house, the woman he called Mother was a teacher. I wanted to know about him playing horn, whether all the kids, growing up in that house played music? Looking back, he said he saw his Mother, the Mother who raised him, as a great teacher, that he was the only musician, the other kids, his brothers, his sisters, all went off, on to other things. He said she was always asking him,”are you ready for an instrument, he thought he had one, there was an Wurlitzer organ in their home, as kids, they all fooled with it. His Mother brought in kids at risk, Irving was born around 1960, his dad was a musician, he never met the man, but at about 11 or 12, he told his Mom that he was ready, that he was ready for an instrument. Through the school where his Mother worked, she arranged Her Son to meet the Orchestra Director of the school, Irving said he was digging the horn, Louie Armstrong was one of the players he mentioned, there were four at the school who wanted to play horn. He said they were all sat down, given a mouthpiece, and the horn, told to go home, to learn to make sound with the mouthpiece, just leave the horn alone! About a week later, he said the four of them were back, back to show the band leader, how they had learned. Irving told me, he went last, that all three before him, stepped up with their mouthpiece, and made sounds, that when it was his time, he had to confess, he hadn’t spent much time working with the mouthpiece, but for everyone to listen!!! Irving told me of his Birth Mother, how he probably broke her heart. It all went on in 1960s Chicago, a Small German Woman, hanging with a Black Musician, it was hard times, back then, back there, Irving said he learned a bit, of how hard, her life had been. He told me at eighteen, he was given a letter from her, he told me he was angry then, he told me he ripped it up, for about ten years, he forgot about it. You got to get out there, get knocked around a bit, before you get it, before you understand, he tried to find his mother, found out she had moved to the south, had married again, and had passed.