[ponyakr]

now i was a free man. jay & i could ride the roads & make loops as single, unattached young studs(we thought). we'd ride the backroads, sippin on tasty beverages & listening to country music on the 8-track tape player. our favorite was hank williams greatest hits. sometimes thats the only tape we'd listen to all night. it would go round & round(we wore out several) & after we got a little buzz goin, we'd sing every word right along with ole hank. stuff like: Your Cheatin Heart, Jambalaya, Hey Good Lookin & even I Saw The Light. "i gotta hot rod ford & a 2 dollar bill & i know a spot right over the hill, there's soda pop & the dancin's free, so if you wanna have fun come along with me. hey hey, good lookin, what'cha got cookin? how'sa bout cookin somethin up with me". some of you mite be sayin, yuk! how could you listen to that junk? hey, we were both from the country & grew up on farms. i'll tell ya whats "yuk", all this filthy talkin rap & hip hop & the hard rock screamin thats goin on! well, movin rite along. now after we got all jacked up sangin with hank, we'd put on our black cowboy hats & cruise back into town "makin the scene". so during 1 of these scenes T.J. was cruisin in her mom's olds 98 (they were huge back then) & spotted us. now she was a cowgirl, you know, rode horses & everything. so when she saw these 2 dudes in a musclecar & with cowboy hats on, it got her attention. she's made a joke about it ever since. she says "boy those cowboy hats'll git them women". she asked around to find out more about us. i remember seeing her drivin around in that big ole tank & she was so short it looked like she could hardly see over the dash. & she wore these funny lookin little glasses. so i never gave her much thought. then 1 day i saw her get out of the car & without her glasses. my mouth probably hung open as i gawked. she wasn't very tall but she had the most beautiful long straight hair i had ever seen. i was smitten! i remember thinkin "whoa, that little girl is beautiful". well, to shorten this a bit i'll just say, we got together & began to have an occasional date. i could tell that this little girl was special. on our 1st date, we went to see "the sound of music". she dropped her glasses & we could'nt find them in the dark, so we just laughed & disturbed everybody & ate popcorn & had a good time. but, i'd learned from my previous experience to keep the macho musclecar thang seperate & let her know that it was important to me, so she'd give me my space. well she probably didn't like it very much, but she did it any way. God bless T.J. for "hangin in there".