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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nby Donal Mahoney<\/p>\n
\nBack in 1957, kissing Carol Ann behind the barn in the middle of a windswept field of Goldenrod with a sudden deer watching was something special, let me tell you. Back then, bobby sox and big barrettes and ponytails were everywhere.<\/p>\n
Like many farmers, Carol Ann\u2019s father had a console radio in the living room, and every Saturday night the family would gather \u2018round with bowls of ice cream and listen to The Grand Ole Opry. It was beamed \u201call the way\u201d from Nashville I was told more than once since I was from Chicago and sometimes wore a tie so how could I know.<\/p>\n
On my first visit, I asked Carol Ann if the Grand Ole Opry was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir of country music and she said not to say that to her father. She suggested I just tap my foot to the music and let him watch me. Otherwise, I\u2019d best be quiet and say \u201cYup,\u201d \u201cNope\u201d or \u201cMaybe\u201d if asked any questions which she didn\u2019t think would happen. No need to say much more, she said, and after a few visits, I understood why.<\/p>\n
Over time, I learned to tap my foot pretty good to the music because when I\u2019d come to visit, her father would insist I have a bowl of ice cream with the family. I liked the ice cream but not so much the Grand Ole Opry. I\u2019d been weaned on Sinatra in the city. Big difference, let me tell you.<\/p>\n
But back in 1957 kissing Carol Ann behind the barn was something special since we couldn\u2019t do much more until I found employment. Only then, her father said, could we get married. I found no jobs in town, however, for a bespectacled man with degrees in English.<\/p>\n
Still, I always found the weekend drives from Chicago worth the gas my Rambler drank because kissing Carol Ann brought a bit of heaven down behind that barn, especially on summer nights when fireflies were the only stars we saw when our eyes popped open. It was like the Fourth of July with tiny sparklers twinkling everywhere.<\/p>\n
Now, 55 years later, Carol Ann sometimes mentions fireflies at dusk as we dance behind the cows to coax them into the barn for the night. I\u2019m still not too good with cows despite my John Deere cap, plaid shirt and overalls which proves, she says, that all that kissing behind the barn in 1957 took the boy out of the city but not the city out of the boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHee Haw\u201d is all I ever say in response because I know why I\u2019m there. It\u2019s to keep tapping the cows on the rump till we get them back in the barn so we can go back in the house and start with a kiss and later on come back downstairs for two big bowls of ice cream.<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
Nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes, Donal Mahoney has had work published in various publications in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Some of his work can be found at http:\/\/eyeonlifemag.com\/the-poetry-locksmith\/donal-mahoney-poet.html<\/p>\n
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