Laughing It All Away

Norman got an 8 track player,

The year was 1974…

The year we outgrew Stockton,

And could party there no more.

Piling into the Buick Skylark,

Norm shifted us out of park…

On the Highway 99 on ramp,

I pushed in “Court and Spark”.

Sacramento's dives and discos,

With new friends from every bar…

Resulted in a back seat party,

Drinking to Joni songs in the car.

Feeling young and athletic,

Frank, in a tavern parking lot…

Hopped on fifteen car roofs,

With the abandon liquor bought..

I never thought for a moment,

Going home on that pre-dawn drive,

Forty years after all the laughs,

I’d be the only one left alive.

“Court and Spark” is now a CD,

Still conjuring up that night of fun…

Most of my time is spent alone,

And Joni Mitchell turned Seventy-one.