Cartwheels on a Gravel Road

“Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” – Lucinda Williams

Sittin’ in the kitcken, a house in macon
loretta’s singing on the radio
smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon
car wheels on a gravel road
pull the curtains back and look outside
somebody somehere i don’t know
come on now child we’re gonna go for a ride

car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road

can’t find a damn thing in this place
nothing’s where i left it before
set of keys and a dusty suitcase
car wheels on a gravel road
There goes the screen door slamming shut
you better do what you’re told
when i get back this room better be picked-up

car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road

low hum of voices in the front seat
stories nobody knows
got folks in jackson we’re going to meet
car wheels on a gravel road
cotton fields stretching miles and miles
hank’s voice on the radio
telephone poles trees and wires fly on by

car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road

broken down shacks engine parts
could tell a lie but my heart would know
listen to the dogs barkin in the yard
car wheels on a gravel road
child in the backseat about four or five years
lookin’ out the window
little bit of dirt mixed with tears

car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road
car wheels on a gravel road

I first heard the song by Lucinda Williams on an FM radio station when FM was actually good. I used to listen to ‘Brave New Waves’ and ‘Nightlines’ on CBC Radio when it was unspoiled by militant state sponsored Cultural Marxist propaganda. David Wisdom and Brent Bambury played non-mainstream and Indie type music from overseas before it received airplay in North America, if it ever got played at all. CBC became a clarion caller for state funded WOKE ideologies and made stars of media personalities like George Stroumboulopoulos and Jian Ghomeshi who turned out to be creepy, smug, entitled predators and abusers whose behaviour was ignored and concealed by the CBC who enabled them at the expense of their victims and the Canadian taxpayer.

Enough about that reality.

I didn’t bother to fully examine the words and title Car(t) Wheels because I got hooked on the image of someone doing cartwheels on a gravel road. I heard ‘cart’ instead of ‘car’. I went with the imagery of someone doing cartwheels on a gravel road, starting the turn, pushing their hands into the gravel, raising small couds of dust and pushing off to complete the turn. There may have been pain but the joy of the cartwheel would have numbed it. I imagined the cartwheeler dusting off their hands on their jeans and looking back and smiling at their gravel walking companion. I imagined the gravel walking companion smiling back in admiration and pehaps a bit of envy. Where they went after that I don’t know.

I also imagined cart wheels of a different kind on a gravel road, like the ones on a cart that would be pulled by a horse, or a donkey or oxen. There might be hay or sacks of grain or potatoes or cans of milk or cream being driven to town, to market. Draft animal hooves are typically steel shod, adding to the sounds as hoof meets gravel.

The carts might have people on them, on their way to church for worship or a wedding or funeral, or a hall or fairground. I could hear the crunch of the wheels on the gravel over the voices of the passengers and drivers and the constant squeak and squeal as rock ground against rock, or if the cart wheels were steel shod, a ring and ping as steel met rock.

Gravel roads are the working roads of rural folk but they can lead to spectacular out of the way places that rival those you can get to on paved roads. Gravel roads are those less travelled because of the dust and inconvenience that seeps through the door seals and settles on your car dashboard or motorcycle windscreen and gets in your eyes and nostrils and ears.

Gravel roads can be tricky. Limited visability and the instability of the surface, especially that of the dreaded washboard are challenging at any speed and moreso around curves…and infinitely more thrilling when riding a motorcycle. Ever had the squirrely wobblies?

Even if you can’t execute a pefect cartwheel, consider taking a gravel road, even if you don’t know where it goes…take it. You might get a bit dirty but it might take you somewhere nice.