The Great American Getaway (1978)

Words and Music ©1978, 2013 by Dallas Denny

Source: Denny, Dallas. (1978). The great American getaway. Unpublished song.

 

 

 

 

In 1976 both my marriage and doctoral programs were falling apart. Between quarters I left my home near Knoxville, headed for California in my 1954 Chevrolet.  The 22-year-old car (now it would be 59 years old!) made the 7500-mile trip without incident, but I often thought, “What if it hadn’t?”

 

Me, 6 December, 2013 (160 MBPS MP3)

 

The Great American Getaway

By Dallas Denny

 

She was the very picture

Of the Great American Dream

She sang a song of the Korean War

And high-test gasoline

But her paint and the chromium bumpers

Were losing all their gleam

She was developing a thirst for travel

And quarts of Valvoline

 

The car and me left long before dawn

When my husband woke up

We were long since gone

Gone to find our destiny on wheels

Hated to leave like a thief that way

Westbound lane at the break of day

But the highway

The highway

Will always take you home

 

So head her down the highway

Run her down the road

The Great American Getaway

Or at least so I’ve been told

My head was knocking with the engine

‘Till I thought they’d both explode

But me and that old Chevrolet

Had a long damned way to go

 

The credit card kept the gas tank filled

While I swallowed coffee and little white pills

Coast to coast on Supershell and speed

Wasn’t no spare

And she was too tired to pass

It was “Fill up the oil, son

And check on the gas”

But the highway

The highway

Will always take you home

 

So head her down the highway

Run her down the road

The Spirit of the Pioneers

Or at least so I’ve been told

My head was knocking with the engine

‘Till I thought they’d both explode

And somewhere in New Mexico

A piston rod let go

 

So leave her to the desert

And the Navajo night

The radio playing

And the headlights on bright

So much for making history on wheels

But then all good iron will come to rust

And flesh and blood

To bone and dust

But the highway

The highway

Will always take you home