In this episode’s monologue – delivered from the backstage dressing room with the one lonely little lightbulb burnin’ – Mike talks about walkin’ the black dog.

You can join the Tent Show Radio Facebook page here.

REMINDER: Most of this year’s previous Tent Show Radio episodes available for streaming anytime – just click here.

SET LIST:
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Ballyhoo theme song
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Cosmic Cowboy, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, Face On The Cutting Room Floor, The Resurrection, Tulsa Sounds Like Trouble To Me, My Walkin’ Shoes Don’t Fit Me Anymore
Michael Perry: Monologue
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad, Mr. Bojangles, Fishing In The Dark, An American Dream, Jambalaya
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Hobo Blues

In this episode’s monologue – delivered from the backstage dressing room with the one lonely little lightbulb burnin’ – Mike talks about walkin’ the black dog.

You can join the Tent Show Radio Facebook page here.

REMINDER: Most of this year’s previous Tent Show Radio episodes available for streaming anytime – just click here.

SET LIST:
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Ballyhoo theme song
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Cosmic Cowboy, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, Face On The Cutting Room Floor, The Resurrection, Tulsa Sounds Like Trouble To Me, My Walkin’ Shoes Don’t Fit Me Anymore
Michael Perry: Monologue
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad, Mr. Bojangles, Fishing In The Dark, An American Dream, Jambalaya
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Hobo Blues

“What?” she said.

“Let me help you get parked,” I said.

“Whadd’you mean?” she said.

“Well, ma’am, you hit my car and then you hit the other car…I just…”

She leaned over the steering wheel and waved her hand at my car. “Do you see anything?”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“I barely bumped you,” she said.

“Yah, but, you…”

“It didn’t hurt anything.”

“Well, my daughter is in there, and you just can’t…”

“Acchh!” she said, slapped it in park and waved me off. As I watched her and the elderly pal head into the senior center (yes) she shot me a malevolent scowl.

Later my someone pointed out that I should have called the police, because clearly the woman shouldn’t be navigating in public, and they are quite right. What’s odd at 3 miles an hour will not be funny at all at highway speeds. But in the moment I was just so flabbergasted at her reaction that it didn’t occur to me.

She’s out there…

I was in touch with Mark by phone throughout the day. By utter coincidence, bidding on the running gear commenced just as I was being introduced before some one thousand or so bright faces in a very large conference hall attached to a Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis. And so, dear members of Sigma Tau Delta, it is with thanks and apologies that I explain: The reason I hunkered down behind the riser and clapped my phone to my ear immediately after concluding remarks on the state of rural literature in a postmodern age was to ask Mark, “Did we get it? Did we get it?”

Ooh, mysterious.