David Lee Murphy - The Road You Leave Behind

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I was ten years old, and it was pouring cats and dogs.  Mom had dropped dad off at the railway station, and I had come along with her to keep her company on the long drive back from Brownville Junction.

That was the night I learned about the kindness of strangers.

We had a flat tire.  Mom pulled the Plymouth over to the shoulder of the road, and put the blinkers on.  We sat there - me not really knowing what to do, her knowing all too well what would have to be done.  I remember the rain beating on the roof of the car, and the inky blackness that lay beyond the glow of the headlights.

Then came a light behind us, a truck that pulled over and stopped behind us.  The sound of a door slamming came faint over the noise of the raindrops.  A man in a raincoat came up to the window, peering at mom from beneath his hat.  And then at me.

"Is everything all right, ma'am?"

He changed the tire for us, right there in a howling nor'easter.  Wouldn't take mom's money, just smiled at her thanks.  And winked at me.  We drove off, dry, thanks to the kindness of a stranger.  Looking back on it, it seems foolish - the risk of a stranger in a dark and stormy night.  Perhaps it was different in 1968, or perhaps we under estimate people's humanity these days. 

Today I'm driving I-20 east bound for the last time.  I'm coming back to Austin once again to pack up my stuff (and hopefully meet a bunch of you at the Dallas Blogshoot), but we'll drive back on I-10 via New Orleans.  In a very real sense, this is a road I'm leaving behind.

I'm very glad to be going home, for good.  But looking back, I see how my time here has been blessed by the kindness of those of you out here, strangers no more.  In the way that counts, I'll go back down this road I leave behind.



The Road You Leave Behind (Songwriter: David Lee Murphy)

I remember the night my dad stopped the car
And got out in the rain
Changed a blown out tire on a car
For a family with out of state plates
I said dad did we know those folks
As they waved and drove out of sight
He just smiled as he started the car
He said son not 'til tonight

You see the road you leave behind you
Is another road you're gonna have to come back down
It's just the way this big old world turns 'round
You'll find somehow somewhere someplace sometime
You gotta go back down the road you leave behind

Stuck out on the highway one night
Many years gone by
Had the hood of my truck pulled up
My ol' gas tank was dry
Some ol' guy gettin' off on the night shift
Pulled up to check on me
He said I been in your shoes before son
And it's no place to be

You see the road you leave behind you
Is another road you're gonna have to come back down
It's just the way this big old world turns 'round
You'll find somehow somewhere someplace sometime
You gotta go back down the road you leave behind

I said what do I owe you friend you could easily passed me by
He said next time it might be me son you don't me a dime

You see the road you leave behind you
Is another road you're gonna have to come back down
It's just the way this big old world turns 'round
You'll find somehow somewhere someplace sometime
You gotta go back down the road you leave behind