Never Felt Better

One of the many things I love about my Kentucky heritage is the abundance of such wonderful, flavorful, sometimes comical but always meaningful phrases. When spoken with that special accent, comments like Uncle Edgil's oft-uttered phrase, "this area is so poor, even the crows carry a lunch when they fly over," can be both comical and painfully true.

There are many others, but I was recently reminded of a reply my father often used when asked, "how are you, Greene?", he quite often responded,

I've never felt better, needed less or expected more. 

I often wondered if that phrase was due to his humble upbringing in a poor, rural Appalachian coal town, his job working at the Elk Horn Coal Company Store (Tennessee Ernie Ford was right*) and how he was able to move away to quasi-affluent living in Detroit and suburbs. I should have asked him when I had the chance.

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*Mr Ford's popular song, Sixteen Tons, included the refrain I owe my soul to the Company Store. The miners were usually paid in "scrip", that could only be used to purchase items at the Company Store, thereby trapping those folks in that hard, dangerous life. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip)

Sixteen Tons

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood

Muscle and blood and skin and bones

A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal

And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain

Fightin' and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion

Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside

A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died

One fist of iron, the other of steel

If the right one don't a-get you

Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store