My 5000th Post - Happy Pride!

Do you know that June 26 is a momentous day in gay rights history?  On this date in 2003, 2013, and 2015, the United States Supreme Court made three major rulings that firmly established our right to love whom we love, serve in the military, and get married.  Look those up here.

And today the Blue Truck has passed a big milestone - 5000 posts, over 9000 comments, nearly 4 million pageviews, according to my Blogger dashboard:

Click to enlarge.

So instead of the usual Friday men, here's a rerun of me and M.P. back in June of 2010, cooling off and splashing around at Chickasaw National Recreation Area, a beautiful big green park up in Oklahoma.

Now much less adventurous in our 70s, we're content just to stay home, out of the sun and under the a/c.  We well recall a time when "homosexual" was a dirty word, a mortal sin, a major crime, and a psychotic disorder, and are very grateful that we have lived to see gay couples living together openly and happily just as all other ordinary people do.

Hope all my truckbuddies are having a great weekend wherever you are.  Life is a rolling river - enjoy what you can while you can. 

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Sunday Drive: Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

Dear Canadian friends - chers amis canadiens - queridos amigos mexicanos:

I apologize with a heavy heart for what is being done to you by America's self-proclaimed dictator.  Not in my name!  

As I type these lines, I weep - actually, I am sobbing - to see what is happening to my country, and soon to happen, I expect, to many other nations.  My father fought against the Nazi tyranny in World War II, when America and the Allied nations fought a titanic struggle to rid the world of that evil.  The democracies in that day were the sane middle way between communism and fascism; but where is the via media today?

In my old-fashioned mind, America is still, despite all its flaws and sometimes egregious mistakes, the torchbearer for liberty, justice, democracy, and human decency.  Why else do all the world's refugees want to come here, or to Canada or one of the other Western democracies?  Nobody's breaking down the gates to get into Putin's Russia or the other dictatorships, are they?

Say what you will about our politics and politicians, the fact is undeniable that America in many ways, many times, and many places has led, fed, and healed the world:  a magnificent record of good deeds to counterbalance the bad. But now it seems the long golden afternoon of postwar peace and America's benign dominance of the free world has come to an end.  It may be that a long dark night will follow.  I hope not.

There is no need for me to repeat the news reports out of Washington, but I will say this:  You do not deserve to be mistreated, bullied, or perhaps bludgeoned into submission to the tyrant's whims.  Nor do most of us American people.  Please remember that half of us voted against the dictator.  But now all of us must live with the terrible consequences.

Click to enlarge.  From Wikipedia.

Of course, you all must do what you have to do to protect yourselves.  But there is no good reason for our peoples to hate one other after many long years of peace and friendship, north and south.  One day, the sun will rise again, the clouds will part, and the upward path of civilization will begin anew - sooner rather than later, I pray.  Whether this old man will live to see it, who knows.

But do not be deceived;  the only thing a bully respects is strength, and a punch in the nose.  Appeasement only feeds the appetite for conquest.  And no doubt there will be quislings in your own countries, ready and willing to sell you into slavery.  Do not submit without a fight for your freedom and dignity, though the price be steep. God bless you, friends and neighbors, and God help us all.

This song fits my mood today - more the vibe than the vague lyrics - perhaps it will speak to you, too.

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Sunday Drive: Green River

Little Niagara Falls at Chickasaw NRA.  Click to enlarge.
Photo by Jonathan C. Wheeler, CC-by-SA 3.0, at Wikipedia.

Today I'm serving up some virtual relief from the long, hot summer with this video montage I made twelve years ago, when M.P. and I spent a day picnicking and exploring at Chickasaw National Recreation Area up in Oklahoma - a big, beautiful, cool, green national park with no entrance fee that ought to be better known than it is. I blogged about our trip with more pictures here and here, as some of my longtime truckbuddies may remember. 

I'm no longer nimble enough to go hiking and splashing around like this, but it's a pleasant memory. The soundtrack is a favorite by CCR - crank it up.

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Sunday Drive: More from 1969

A few more hits from 1969 that I was fond of then, for one reason or another, some of which bring back poignant memories now.

The 5th Dimension had a big hit that year with this groovy medley of the opening and closing numbers - I only just now learned that from Wikipedia - from the smash Broadway musical Hair:




If you were alive in '69, you must remember how irresistible the theme from Hawaii Five-O was, the Ventures' last hit single, I believe - this, of course, was before instrumental tunes were outlawed on the radio.




This lovely song, by Jay and the Americans, reminds me of a girl I dated for a few weeks that year - puppy love, and of course impossible for all the obvious reasons, but a sweet little romance while it lasted - an awakening to the possibilities of life:




The Grass Roots, an underrated band in my view, were riding high that year, with the studly Rob Grill as lead singer - he's the mustached one in this cover photo:




And it was a banner year for CCR and their swamp-rock sound, which reconnected rock with its country roots. These guys weren't Southern boys, but they should have been - they sure sounded like they were:

Sunday Drive: Time Is Tight

A live performance of this happy tune, one of your Head Trucker's all-time favorites. Adding interest to this clip are offstage glimpses of the members of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Green River

A few more pics from our trip to the woods.  First, some critters we encountered, starting with a herd of bison:

Then as we were on our way out of the park just before sunset, we came around a curve and OMG right there in the middle of the road was this young buck.  So I slammed on brakes and my buddy grabbed his Nikkon.  Of course the deer wouldn't stand still to pose for us, but M. Pierre managed to get these shots as the little cuss ambled off into the woods:

And then of course there was our little duckbuddy, who would have posed all day long for us I think.  Absolutely no fear of people, apparently; M. P. splashed water on him and got within about 3 feet to take these snaps, but duckbuddy was like, Whatever.

Speaking of, um, duckbuddies - of course, where there's water, there's always the story of the one who got away:

Damn, I shoulda used a stronger line.  He sure was friendly though, and not afraid of people.  He'd let you walk right up to him, splash water on him, whatever.  Wish I'd had something to feed him with.

And finally here's a little montage I threw together with the only possible song:  an anthem for us Southern boys.  (John Fogerty isn't Southern - but he should have been.)

If you didn't grow up running the woods and creeks and swamps, swinging out from a tall tree on an old tire hitched to a rope and dropping twenty feet into the water, raising a cloud of dust on a red dirt road in an old rattling truck, and drinking beer at midnight on the riverbank with a buddy in front of a log fire while you listen to the hoot owls and whippoorwills sing - man, I feel so sorry for you bud.

Crank it up. 

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It was a helluva lot more fun than standing around some grungy old barroom half the night where you can't even hear yourself talk, that's for sure fellas.  I tell you what.



P.S. - Okay, so like with all fish stories, I lied about the nekkid guy.   I actually kiped that pic  from my truckbuddy Ultra Dave.  But it makes a great story anyway, don't it?