When I take you out in the surrey
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top....
I should be rich. Think I told you before. It was Janis Joplin that said SOMETHING along the line of "Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive HORSES, I must make amends", or, something close.
A hunnerd and twenty-five years ago or so, we was somebody. Our family. Largest dadgum buggy maker this sidea Peoria, Illinois. German inventor Karl Benz got the patent in 1886 for the Benz Motorwagon...but it tweren't until 1908 or so that Henry mass produced the Model T that ensured the "too bad, so sad, your "We somebody buggy-building businesss" was passe', so solly, seeya later, a nice try by a nice guy, er, family. Oh well. (Oh well reminds me of one of my favorite songs, Oh Well, but then that's kinda ironic 'cause its like a Cadillac Fleetwood and a Mac truck knocked the holy heck outta our buggy-making-makea-buck family.)
Where was I? Oh yeah, poor.
The above is a way, way too long introduction to a blog about fringe. (Chicks and ducks, fringe on top ya know)...
I love me some fringe. Mind out of gutter, I mean fringe as in, when you look back on life, what comes to mind first... family... bestest friends.. beloved teachers.. favorite coworkers... the group of people 'in your group' that one feels life cannot continue without those in our mainstream. Fringe don't come to mind first. (I'm still learning this proper English, sorry, bare with me. Hehe. VICTOR you said NOT that kinda fringe.. I know, sorry. Probably not funny, but an attempt at humor. (Continuing with the musical muck, Dobie Gray might offer "I'm in with the in crowd.")
The point is, there are so, so many people that enhance our lives, and hopefully that we enhance their lives as well - who aren't our (beg pardon, more musical muck) Everyday People (thank you Sly, and your family of Stone.)
Sports. It takes 9 players to play baseball. In football, ya got your starters on offense and your starters on defense, but where would ya be without the special teamers that risk life and limb on kickoffs, punts, field goals, yada. Virtually daily we read about college basketball teams, 'thanks' to Covid, not having ten total players to practice a regular ole regular five on five practice.
It would take FOREVER to get outta the Piggly Wiggly if it were only the checkers, you gots to have those sackers too. What's a restaurant without a server? Whattaya gonna do? Look at the menu, run back and tell the cook? Then, ask her to holler with it's ready? (Come to think of it, maybe I did that in marriage? I ain't seen that cook in forever!)
If you get the inclination in reading this junk, that I think I am SOMEBODY and these folks ain't important and that I'm somewhere up above there, no, huh uh, stop, stymie halt, that ain't the drift AT ALL. (Geez, quoting Jackie DeShannon twice in a week, but, What The World Needs Now... is fringe, sweet fringe. It's the only thing that there AIN'T too little of.)
I've had me some jobs. Oh baby oh baby, the people. Sure, my/our best buds, but not all the laughs, fun, work comes from best buds. We need folks we hardly know, but, to quote the Association, Cherish.
The Gentrys would remind us to Keep On Dancin', don't be afraid to Walk Don't Run and Venture out to make new friends.
We are a people of cluster, sure maybe moreso in our youth, but as we age as well. High School reunions could be perceived as yuck. In fact, so many of my beloved friends that hung out in our cluster are gone, no longer on the planet. Reunion time, borrowing from Larry Verne, "Please Mr. C(L)uster, I don't wanna go." And then, I go And then. I have WONDERFUL visits with folks I really didn't know all that well in school, and vice versa. We each, were on a fringe cluster. Julie Andrews might call it Getting To Know You, getting to know all about you.
Customers, vendors, the gal who is so friendly that sells me my smokes and beer each time I go in.. the smiles ya get (and give) when someone you have no idea who it is, holds the door for you, or vice versa.
Sly, and that Stone family of his, put it pretty succinctly when they sang "All we need is a drummer for people who only need a beat..." more, more fringe.. ok... "I'm gonna add a little guitar, and make it easy to move your feet." Sing it brother! "You might like to hear my organ, I said a ride Sally ride."..."If I could hear the horns blow.".. yum... "Listen to the voices." Oh sure, Sweet Baby James Taylor can stand on stage, guitar only and entertain for hours (and I love that.) Sly brings us some fringe. Me and Mike say "Yeah baby!"...
High school. Me and a buddy were fringe friends. Then we went to college together. He in a different fraternity. "Hi, how ya doing" fringe friends. He moved to Arkansas for a long time. (Big River, Arkansas Arkansas, I just love ole' Arkansas.).. He moved back a couple three years ago. A golf group, call it a cluster if you like, two buddies and I, friends, good friends since Mr. Green Jeans fed the rabbit on TV. Arkansas moved back. Joined our golf cluster. Proud to say, he and I really good friends now.
People (People Who Need People) are the luckiest people in the world. We're children, needing other children, and yet letting a grown-up pride hide all the need inside, acting more like children, than children. We expand the wrinkles, the waistline, thank GOD we expand our lives in loving, knowing those on the fringe - and again, that subset (fringe) includes us in there too.
Seriously, I look at my friends list on Facebook - so, so many wonderful people I really didn't know back in yesteryear - new bonds built on fun, laughter, tears, duct tape, letters.
So sing, even if ya can't. Dance, even if it ain't pretty doing so. Say Hi, even if ya don't know 'em. Smile, feels real good to get it back.
So Slow Down You Move Too Fast.. Look for fun and feel groovy, that's what Art and Paul say anyways. (Simon sez look it up in your GarFunkel and Wagnall).
Whoa! you team, and jist keep a-creepin' at a slow clip clop.
Don't you hurry with the surrey with the fringe on the top!
Fringe buddies make us wanna say Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself, Again.
So... so much for the 'I am somebody' buggy building (with the fringe on top) business. I said I was poor. Monetarily, sure, prolly still am, but through life, the fringe buddies I've made, and vice versa me once being a fringe player, now friend - make me rich.
By Henry Gibson.. Forward by Oscar, Richard and Sly.
Love, Victurd
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