Memories of Mickey
My Dad was such an inspiration
As the man I looked up to in my early childhood
As I listened with rapt attention
To his stories of how great it was riding a motorbike to the west coast
And hangin’ out on Long Beach, seeking a life of freedom
Thinking when I grow up, I’m gonna do the same
Rollin’ two wheel thunder through the rockies
To see the freedom of the open road, and standing up to the challenges
it offers, hail balls on the cliff edged highways, or camping out in the rain
Just like he presents us with here and now to honor him
Hay River in the winter time,
flights in the thousands of dollars to go on
at the end of a road seldom salted or plowed
Where they stopped sending the bus years ago because it broke down for 5 hours
When it was forty below and the people on it nearly froze
and many more would be here to honor him
The man who changed all our lives
With his soft spoken presence, his larger than life stories
Building a church on MacKay lake
Cabin turned church with stain glass windows to offer sanctuary
To contentious objectors in times of war
Later to be reffered to as
“that religious cult I was in back in the early 70s”
But I couldn’t see a difference between it
and other churches sponsering refugees,
just theirs came from the USA,
Church turned cabin where we went on so many fishing trips
Filled my younger years with adventure and fun and the pride
Of eating of what you have caught yourself
Allowing us to miss weeks of school to make the point
That “there’s no education so valuable as knowing how to feed yourself”
With both a rod and a gun
Helping to make me the great radio show host I’ve become
With a song for every occasion
Its “fearless Heart” when he’s looking for love
Or “Last thing I needed” when his first born daughter runs away
He says to me “there’s a song about people who quit school in grade six”
When I was never going back after lunch one day
And he makes me sit there and listen to Murry Macloughlin, songs from the street, Honkey Red
I had to go to Edmonton last month
and thank him in person for being my Dad
For being such an example of a decent human being
Wish I could be there myself to honor
Memoies of Mickey,
