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Ray Nordstrand and Cindy Sheehan at the 7/11
Ray Nordstrand and the Peace Mom at the 7-11
“I remembered my songs in the night.
My heart mused and my spirit inquired,”
Psalm 77:6
“Oh yeah. . .
That’s the Midnight Special.”
Huddie Ledbetter
Round about the time to welcome in Ray Nordstrand. . .
Bob Gibson and Steve Goodman, both with beaming smiles, their big guitars ringing out like heaven’s golden trumpets, and a very large crowd of old Chicagoans begin to sing in just the same way Norm and Ray would welcome in each year.
If we only have love
Then tomorrow will dawn
And the days of our year
Will rise on that morn
If we only have love
To embrace without fears
We will kiss with our eyes
We will sleep without tears
Somebody in the crowd tosses out a line about the Gates of Heaven looking a lot like the Gate of Horn. Fred Holstein, strolling up to the stage, says , “I believe the punch line would be ‘one has a much higher cover charge’ but the set up to the joke needs work.”
A gentle laugh rolls across the room as Holstein brings the whole crowd right into the song
Well, you wake up in the morning
You hear the work bell ring
And the march you to the table
You see the same damn thing
Huddie Ledbetter himself stands up and the crowd is now way beyond that group of old Chicagoans. Because in welcoming Ray, it’s a crowd of everyone whoever heard the music played on radio station WFMT. A crowd the stretches world wide. Streaming world wide now. It might just be a crowd too big to count.
Too big to count till Ray gets here.
So the crowd just sings of that long gone lonely Texas train. Sings right along with Leadbelly;
Let the Midnight Special, shine a light on me
Oh let the Midnight Special,
Shine a ever lovin light on me.
And as the crowd becomes one voice blessed by countless tones and rainbow colors of diversity---a voice that sounds of praising God and a diversity that welcomes all: Leadbelly changes the name of the Texas town in his song.
You can do that with folk music.
Because folk music really can be about exactly what is happening right here and now. Especially now. When we are here to sing for Ray. So Leadbelly leads the world wide chorus with:
If you ever go to Crawford
Well you better walk right
And you better not gamble
And you better not fight.
And then just when he gets to that word fight----we can also see this scene:
In the half light quiet dawn still shaking off the chill of the open Texas night, Cindy the Peace Mom, in jeans and a grey hooded sweatshirt pulled up tight around her head, pushes thru the door of the Crawford 7/11: pretty much the only store in town.
That countless crowd that’s joined together to celebrate Ray Nordstrand goes still for a moment to watch what happens next.
A young man in a t-shirt that says “Cowboys Rule” stands smirking behind the counter. The Peace Mom walks in just as the smirk turns into a big yawn at a young and empty looking woman wearing flip flops on her feet and a diamond ring on her finger that throws off a jagged sparkle every time she hits her fist on the counter’s lottery machine. As if the woman's voice were the diamond's sparkle. The sparkle punctuates the syllables as the woman says,
“THAT’S NOT FAIR!’ It’s just not fair!
The t-shirt boy behind the counter itches his nose and says, “Lady I don’t own this place. So I am
just doin what my boss told me to do. If you want paper cups, you got to pay for them.”
“But the price you are charging me is twice what I would usually pay! You are taking advantage because you know I need those cups and there is no where else to buy them!” I got several hundred people waking up real soon. And they all will want their coffee.”
“Lady, I am just doing business here.” The boy throws up his hands in that universal gesture of “what can I do?”
So the woman the diamond says, “Maybe I just wasn’t clear. I’m with the good guys here. I’m on your side. I believe in the war. I drove all the way from Dallas. Brought my friends. I’m with you. I am here for the President. I support our troops."
“Lady, we are all here for the President,” the boy answered back. He’s the reason we’re in business. And when that other lady came here to talk to the President to ask him why he killed her boy. Why my boss saw the opportunity. And this week alone we gonna make our sales numbers for the year! Now, lady don't that make you just loveAmerica?”
"But everybody needs water. And most folks would like some coffee. And without the cups. . . .none of us real American’s can drink! People might start leaving if they can’t get their drinks. And then where would the President be? Who would stand behind him and be the ones to say that we must stay the course in the war!”
“Lady, the only think I can tell you. How’s this. You buy ALL my cups. You buy everything I got. That’s 100,000 paper cups---and I will let you have them for the regular price.
But I can’t do that, said the women now beginning to cry. We only got a few hundred here. What are we gonna do with 100,000 paper cups? I think I am just out of luck here. Maybe I just should have stayed in Dallas!”
And as she buried her face in her hands with a sobbing that she learned on the stage of her junior high, the Peace Mom stepped forward and said: “Listen. If we do this together we can buy all 100,000 of those cups.”
The diamond woman turned and looked at the Peace Mom and said, “Hey, you’re her You mean that we’d be buying cups for everyone? The cups for all of you who are against the President? All of you who want to stop the war?””
And Cindy answered back, “Honey, I’m just a Mom who lost my son. And I’ve never really had a business. Never even been that good at math.
I don’t even know where that idea came from. It's like it came right out of nowhere..
I don’t even know if I can get the money. But I just had this idea. I just had this idea.
That together maybe everyone could have a drink of water or nice cup of coffee in the morning.”
The diamond woman looked at the Peace Mom. She said, “Well, alright.”
And as the two woman shook hands in the Crawford Texas 7/11: Ray Nordstrand saw that the deal was a good one. So he spun this song for eternity to hear.
If we only have love
We can melt all the guns
And then give the new world
To our daughters and sons
Then with nothing at all
But the little we are
We’ll have conquered all time
All space, the sun, and the stars.
The deal was a good one.
So as Ray spun the song.
All eternity could hear.
Like a song for all the good people who touched up my life.
People I’m thanking my stars for tonight.
About the Author
Roger Wright can be found on the blog CHURCH FOOD CHICAGO
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