LOCATION: Texas; Mexico
PERIOD: 1919
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Homer Hardin (1902-1985); Virgil Hardin (1902-1992); Henry “Mack” Adams (1850-1919); Mamie Adams (1884-1970); John Henry Hardin (1878-1949)
Homer and Virgil Hardin lived with their maternal grandfather on his ranch in West Texas. Ten years previously, their parents divorced and their father moved to town, whom they saw occasionally; but they hadn’t seen their mother since she moved to San Antonio shortly after the divorce.
Their grandfather was the oldest of eight boys and the only one to live past the age of twenty-five. That was in eighteen sixty-six. In that same year the first cattle were driven through what was still Bexar County and across the north end of the ranch and on to Fort Sumner and Denver.
He was a crusty old cob, but a good man, and he had taught them the important things about being a man. This song takes place in 1919 after this grandfather passed on. Homer and Virgil’s mother did not want to live on the ranch, nor to even keep it, and put it up for sale.
This was when they decided to go down to Mexico and have an adventure.
ON THE ROAD TO OLD MEXICO
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
Ever think about dyin?
Yeah, some. You?
Think there’s a heaven?
People think what they want to.
Why you think she sold granpa’s land?
Guess she preferred city livin’.
For some, a West Texas cattle ranch,
Ain’t the next best thing to heaven.
My name’s Homer Hardin,
Our ma’s been gone bout ten years.
She left this place an’ us like we was nothin;
Granpa, Virg, an’ me been here.
Then after granpa had died,
She sold his ranch lock, stock, an’ barrel;
That’s what caused me and Virg to decide,
To grab our horses and saddles.
On the road to Old Mexico.
On the road to Old Mexico.
They rode all day and the day after,
South through dusty flatland;
Distant mesas capped with cedar;
They had direction, but no plan.
Hom, why you think she left pa?
Guess her feelin’ for him ‘n’ us had dimmed.
Couldn’t he convince her to call it off?
Naw, he signed whatever she put in front of him.
Virg took a coal from the fire,
And lit a cigarette.
The sparks rose red among the stars;
Their two forms, a silhouette.
Virgil grinned;, damn we done it for sure,
You think they’ll be huntin’ us?
I don’t know. What for?
Just seemed too easy, I guess.
On the road to Old Mexico.
On the road to Old Mexico.
If Pa hadn’t run off when he was small,
We’d of been born in Tennessee.
“We” wouldnt of been born at all.
Why, Hom? That’s crazy.
Cause our mama’s from San Angelo,
And he never would’ve met her.
He’d of met somebody an’ so’d she … So?
Would not’ve been “us” they had in Tennessee or Texas.
Wonder what they’re doin’ back home?
Homer leaned, spat, and looked around;
Probably havin’ the biggest time they’ve known.
Probably struck oil; pickin’ out new cars in town.
Ever get ill at ease, Virgil said.
I don’t know. Whaddya mean?
Y’know, jus’ something youve misread.
Sure. Like a place you ain’t spose to be?
On the road to Old Mexico.
On the road to Old Mexico.
They dismounted, uncinched their saddles;
Sat down beside a copse of willows;
Ate Vienna sausages and crackers;
Feelin’ like a-cupla cowboy heros.
Beneath a silver moon the water shimmered;
They rode across naked and cold.
The horses arose from the river,
Think they got Vienna sausages in Mexico?
They looked back at the country they’d left.
Got dressed in slience, no more chatting.
Put their horses into a gallop,
Hats in the air, laughin’.
Sat their horses in the moonlight,
Goddamn, you know where we’re at?
They paused in the cool of the night;
Then rode south into scrubland, dry and flat.
On the road to Old Mexico.
On the road to Old Mexico.
© 2023 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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