By Merle Lee Ann Pratt – Merle Lee Ann’s Kitchen, author of “A Baker’s Dozen”

Seniors Scene

On The Road Again

Jun 3, 2022 | 9:12 AM

“The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Pattison Media and this site.”

On the road again – where are you headed for this summer?

Are you heading out to a park, to the lake or another province or country? We are coming out of a 2-year pandemic, but for most of us life still isn’t what it was before the pandemic. Life has not turned back to normal. For myself, I am not booking trips by plane or planning too far ahead to book tickets for events. When you pay for something, they take your money immediately, but when the event gets cancelled, they hang onto your money.

I’m not really sure how this works. Obviously once again what is good for the goose isn’t good for the gander. I think these big companies hope you will just forget that you paid $200 or $300 for an event and if they don’t give you your money back who cares.

Speaking of this I do not remember if I got my money back for my Dierks Bentley tickets for an event in January I had planned to go to. I must go investigate that one.

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I investigated and I am good.The money was put back on my credit card. While I was writing this blurb tickets came on sale for The Mavericks in Saskatoon. I saw them pre-pandemic and they were fantastic.

I almost went to buy tickets and then remembered my thoughts on buying tickets. We will have to wait until October when the date is closer and see how I feel about buying tickets.

As summer approaches and we think about heading to the lake or a vacation we are paying the highest price we have ever paid in our lifetime for gas and diesel. Now doesn’t that just boil your blood?

People own more recreation equipment than ever before (due to the pandemic) and now to run these boats, sea-doos, quads, RV’s, etc. your fuel bill will double. Were you one of those people that bought a big high end wake boat? The fun in the sun weekend get-away will be a little more costly than last year.

Oh well, we will all do what we can and enjoy those beautiful warm days of summer that we so look forward to. June is still one of my favourite months. Those long evenings are so awesome to sit outside and enjoy if it is a warm evening. It makes it hard to go to bed, which then makes it hard to get up early and go to work the next day. Oh, the dilemmas of life!

There’s more than one reason why I am talking about on the road again. I’m referring to the singer / songwriter for that song is Willie Nelson. And what can I say about Willie? I have wanted to write about him for awhile. He was born in 1933 and is still going strong.

Lately it seems like more and more artists want to do a duet with Willie. And why wouldn’t you? Definitely on my bucket list, now how to manifest that? Age has just seemed to make him better. He is like a fine wine – the older it is the better it is. Willie wrote his first song at age 7, joined his first band at age 10, has appeared in over 30 movies and co-authored several books. I bought his album Stardust in 1978 and loved every song on it.

Over the years I have continued to listen to Willie. In the late 1960’s Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter and others joined him starting the outlaw country music era. There is so much history if you start reading about him and it seems like every few months I hear a new release with someone singing a song with Willie.

Some of my favorites are Beer for My Horses with Toby Keith, Rainbow Connection with Kacey Musgraves, To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before with Julio Iglesias, Just Breathe with his son Lucas, Seven Spanish Angels with Ray Price, Pancho and Lefty with Merle Haggard and the list just goes on. Another favorite is Crazy made popular by Patsy Cline in 1961 and has been covered by multiple artists since then. Michael Buble has now covered “Crazy” with Willie Nelson just this year on his album “Higher”.

Like I say, everyone wants to do a duet with Willie.

Willie had gotten tired of Nashville and moved to Austin in 1972 and was motivated to return to performing and appearing frequently at the Armadillo Headquarters. In the mid 1980’s he joined up with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson and formed the supergroup “The Highwaymen”.

He just released another duet in April with Tami Neilson a Toronto native who moved to Auckland, New Zealand 15 years ago. It’s a very moving song – written for her father who passed away in 2015. When I visited Austin, Texas in 2019 my son and I made sure we found Willie’s mural that says, “Willie for Mayor”. We had various events and places we were touring to when in Austin but made sure we saw the mural. People love Willie Nelson.

It has been fun doing research on Willie. As I was driving this morning, I got thinking about how we used to research topics. My parents had a set of World Book encyclopedias that were used for anything we didn’t know and wanted to know more information about.

Nowadays, it is straight to the internet. One of my favorite resources is Wikipedia. Somebody asks a question, you grab your phone, type in the question and there it is – the answer you required. The internet and how it works still baffles me. That was one smart dude that figured out how to design an internet.

As we head into June, our May has been on the cool side and lots of wind. I am crossing my fingers that there is no frost on my garden overnight. I have quite a few plants that have been transplanted and we are supposed to miss the frost warning.

We are very happy that we missed out on the hailstorm that hit north of Wakaw Saturday evening. It was like a snowstorm from the look of the pictures on social media. Crazy, crazy weather. From torrential rains, tornadoes, and heat waves we can get just about any kind of weather in good old Saskatchewan and around the world now.

The days are getting longer, and the golf courses are getting greener. We have had some much-needed rain to help the lawns get green and get the gardens and our flowers to grow. You can use good old city water to water your flowers and your grass, but nothing beats Mother Nature’s rain to get things growing. The rain has helped to settle the dust and bring life back to the earth around us. Make the most of your summer. We all wait for it so make sure you enjoy it.

I have mentioned several songs in this blog all related to Willie. There are so many songs and I have a lot of favorites. He released a new album in 2022 on his 89^th birthday called “A Beautiful Time”. What an accomplishment, I think. So many of his cronies he grew up singing with have passed on and he is still releasing new music. Wow! The curtain closer song is called “Leave You With a Smile.” Take a listen and throw a Willie playlist on when you don’t know what to listen to. Over 170 albums, there will be something there you will like!

Want to catch up on my blogs or missed one that you want to read? Go to my website, I keep them posted on there.

Have a great weekend and remember . . .

“Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys

Don’t let ‘em pick guitars and drive them old trucks

Make ‘em be doctors and lawyers and such.”

Written by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings

Merle Lee Ann Pratt – merleleeannskitchen.com – Email: merleleeann@gmail.com

This column is sponsored by MacKenzie Funeral Chapel and Crematorium – We will be there when you need us – Bev and Brian Stobbs

130 9th St. E, Prince Albert, SK

Phone: (306) 763-8488

https://mackenziechapel.ca/