Just A Swangin!

Back in the mid-80s John Anderson came out with a song called “Swingin”

There's a little girl, in our neighborhood.
Her name is Charlotte Johnson, and she's really lookin' good.
I had to go and see her, so I called her on the phone.
I walked over to her house, and this was goin' on.

Her brother was on the sofa, eatin' chocolate pie.
Momma was in the kitchen, cuttin' chicken up to fry.
Daddy was in the backyard, rollin' up a garden hose.
I was on the porch with Charlotte, feelin' love down to my toes.
and we were swingin' (swingin')
yes we were swingin' (swingin')

You know that one I’m talking about? I hated it. I mean, I really hated it. He sings it with a nasally, twangy voice that just grated on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. All I had to hear was the first few notes of the song, and I’d switch stations immediately.

Fast forward about 30+ years to last night, and I found myself at the Egan Center listening to none other than John Anderson live on stage.

It’s Mother’s fault – she bought the tickets as a donation to the Fraternal Order of the Alaska State Troopers (affectionately known as FOAST) and then gave them to me. I agreed to take them before I knew who it was I was supposed to go see.

I actually had a pretty good time, despite that horrible song – apparently, he had numerous other hits as well that weren't nearly as annoying (although he does sing them all with that voice…). And I have to admit: the man can play a guitar! Damn, he is good. He also puts on a good show, too – joking and telling stories in between the hits.

His opener was really good. I had never heard of Thom Bresh before, but now I do believe I’ll have to look him up and see if I can get a CD or two. He is what they call a Thumb Picker (“Not to be confused with a Nose Picker.” he said) which is a style of picking the guitar that makes it sound like three different instruments (drums, a base - one of those big violin-looking things, and guitar) all at the same time.

Wish I Had A Job Like That

As most of you already know, I had the opportunity to participate in the Denali Road Lottery this year. I’m currently working on a write-up for it to be added to my Travels page on my website. 

 

In the meantime, I crunched a few numbers… Wow! The Denali Road Lottery really pays off for the park!

 

According to what they told me, 9,340 people entered the lottery at $10.00 each.

 

That’s $93,000.00

 

They awarded 1,600 “winners” charging them $25.00 each.

 

That’s another $40,000.00

 

Only 1,420 actually participated however. Assume 2 people per car (could be more, though) at the park entrance fee of $10.00 per person.

 

That’s another $28,400.00

 

That’s at least an overall $1,618,000.00 for the park!

 

Which doesn't even include the fees you have to pay to camp there: The fee I paid was $44.00 – multiply that out by 1,420.

 

That’s an additional $62,480.00 for a grand total of a whopping $1,680,480.00

 

Assuming, of course, they all stayed inside the park and that each campground cost the same – which I’m pretty sure they do not.