LOCATION: Texas
PERIOD: 1872-1888
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Jethro “Jed” Phelps (1856-1888, 32); Nellie Phelps (1855-1922, 67); William Phelps (1834-1872); Martha Massey (1835-1862)
Jed Phelps describes life after his Pa died: His sister Nellie marries a Texas rancher who brings them all to his ranch and puts sixteen year old Jed to work. However, after a few years Jed doesn’t take to ranchin’. He’d heard heroic stories about the Texas Rangers and joins up. When that isn’t all he dreamed it’d be, he decides to go back to their farm in Tennessee only to find something less than he expected.
His family never jnew what happened to Jed, whether he died, or just never came home or even contacted them.
A RUSTED PLOW
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
After Pa died Nellie married Bob Dorsey
Brought us to Texas to the biggest ranch I seen
Had me punchin’ cows and breakin’ horses
So I joined the Rangers when I turned nineteen
I’d heard about the Indian Wars
But by then the Kiowa were off the plains
We were so good they don’t need us no more
‘Cept to chase off a few fence cuttin’ gangs
Things ain’t how I want to remember
The truth ain’ what I want to hear
I gotta leave the past behind, it’s better
Than seein’ what’s waitin’ for me there
1888 I went back to Tennessee
Wondered how the ol’ homestead looked now
Rode for a week and what greeted me
Was a crow sittin’ on a rusted plow
I found the block where I split wood
The barn was all but fallin’ down
Squattin’ on my heels, chewin’ a cheroot
Thinkin’ how Pa had been so proud
Things ain’t how I want to remember
The truth ain’ what I want to hear
I gotta leave the past behind, it’s better
Than seein’ what’s waitin’ for me there
Went around back, found those graves
Cleaned them up straightened the stones
A part of me kinda wished we had stayed
But I can’t get back what’s long gone
Spose I got what I came for
It’s sure all that’s here to be found
I’ll ride away come back no more
Not for any crow sittin’ on a rusted plow
I’ll ride away come back no more
Not for no crow sittin’ on a rusted plow
© 2018 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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