1979 - Melanie                                    Home

                                       Look What They've Done to My Song Ma


My partner in H & H Electric was from North Carolina and had some practical experience in the electrical field but little formal education and spelling wasn't his greatest skill. I had the license and I managed the office in addition to working in the field.

My partner was a Baptist who had spent some time reading the Bible and wasn't shy about preaching about it. That may explain why I got into reading the Bible and other books concerning the Bible. One book detailed archaeological finds that tended to confirm the Old Testament writings. This gave me more respect for the Old Testament. Until that time I tended to believe that much of it was not accurate history.

I began reading the Bible from cover to cover. It took about a year. Next I found a book by David Friedman entitled “Who Wrote the Bible.” It detailed new research by linquists which allowed them to determine who wrote various sections of the Old Testament. They discovered that the texts had been revised many times over the years as new political and priestly powers came and went.

Then I read “Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible.” In it Asimov tried to come up with scientific explanations for the supposed miracles in the Old Testament. It was this information which I had used to piss off the hitchhiker named Verne (or was it David?) in 76.

I subscribed to “American Atheist” and read Madalyne Murray O'Hair's book about her struggle to get religion out of the schools. I wrote her a letter arguing from a libertarian perspective that education needed to be gotten out of the hands of the government. She wrote back a nice letter saying she had several libertarian friends and that she agreed with me.

One day I found a T-Shirt booth at a Naples mall and had several T-Shirts made. One was a black T-Shirt with white lettering that read “JESUS IS COMING – AND HE'S REALLY PISSED.”

Occasionally I would go to concerts in Fort Myers. I liked all kinds of music. I had always liked Melanie's music - something about the simplicity and sincerity of the bicycle song and "Look What They've done to my Song Ma." So when Melanie came to town I decided to go see her.

As the concert started I walked right down to the front and was standing right below her. After a few songs her eyes caught my shirt and her eyes locked on mine for several seconds. I was just smiling at her as if I was in love with her. How she was able to read the shirt and continue concentrating on her song I don't know, but I'm sure she read it.

After the concert I was so excited I tried to go back stage to talk to her, but a guard stopped me. He said he would give her my message which was something stupid about how young she made me feel again.