At Home Loving Country Music

Country music has a long history of deep roots steeped in Americana, like baseball, apple pie, Chevrolet, the American flag, and so on.  Many times we can’t get a song out of our heads, and it can also quickly disappear, but in some people, it remains like a picture show inside their heads forever. Whenever they want to replay it, they call upon their inherent gift of “instant recall” to rewind or fast-forward to immediately identify the song and the artist.

Such is the case of many children who live in a mysterious, uncanny, but bountiful place referred to as the Autism spectrum. Without hesitation, our dearly beloved grandson Dante fits the description justly, particularly when it comes to country music. Our love for country music was an obvious genre that was playing on our car radios from dawn and long into the night. Since he accompanied us wherever we were going, his head was filled with the voices of the best that country had to offer during the 90s when it became more mainstream than the earlier days when the genre was called country-western, hillbilly, western swing, and wealth was measured in cattle. We now refer to this phenomonon as “citified cowboy of the autistic kind wisdom.”

It all began when he was four years old and the song Tequila Makes Your Clothes Fall Off, sung by Joe Nichols, came on the radio, and he said, “Te’kella”. His grandmother said, “It’s pronounced tequila.”His response was, “Tequila makes your clothes fall off“. That simple mispronounced word exposed his undeniable love for country music. Since then, he has indexed every song and artist with a recall that is, let’s say, “uncanny.” If there were ever a contest to name every country song and artist during that decade, he couldn’t be beaten. We would stake our lives on that!

He’s an urban cowboy of the Autistic kind and born country without the recklessness, aggressiveness, or independence associated with cowboys. He belongs in the front seat of a pickup singing the words to his own song, “I love country music, I’m as handsome as Elvis, and I’m affectionate as all get out!”

Most of all he follows the “cowboy code of conduct” to the letter;

The cowboy should never shoot first, hit a woman, a smaller man, or take unfair advantage of anyone despite their age, gender, or disability

He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided unto him

He must always tell the truth

He must be gentle, loving, and respectful with children, the elderly, and animals

He must live each day with courage, take pride in his work, always finish what he start, do what has to be done, be tough, but fair, ride for the brand, and know where to draw the line.

“There will never be any class of people in our country that can replace the old western cowman for common sense, shrewdness, humor, and fine citizenship”

 Will Rogers (1879- 1935)

Giddy up my buckin’ bronco friends, time to ride your dreams head on into the wind!