That's the fellow that's the chap
That's the one we're putting up
That's the laddie that's the boy
The Sales Director's pride and joy
His suits are tidy, not too neat
He's always frank but still polite
He's often right but sometimes wrong
It's good to see him move along
He worked for Roscoe and for me
Got good reports from old J B
That's the sort I like to back
The new and better class of chap
Nicely spoken never farts
Took a good degree in arts
I like the lad I like his views
Oh I could kiss his soft suede shoes
I hung on because I did not want to quit as a loser, and was selected in 1965 for six months overseas experience in Canada. At the end of the attachment Monica and I drove from Seattle to San Francisco and strayed onto the grass of hippy paradise.
When we got back, You'll work only twelve hours a week, said the Principal of the North Staffordshire College of Technology—plenty of time for your poetry.
In the wet North Midlands the winter sun hardly rose–
Christ how green the fields
And Christ how bright the flowers
Be gracious to us Lord
Send us a good morning
(Christ how tall the clouds)
God how the air is wet in our throats
Drive us like leaves before thee Lord
Let our work glorify thee
Christ how light thy yoke
Send us home (Christ how glad the cries
Of our children) while the sun dies
Like a red fish netted in the trees
Overhead St Michael fought the dragon each Michaelmas evening and the canals were stage sets for miracles, even the Annunciation. Look down there on the towpath, almost out of sight—do you see her?
The canal has swallowed the clouds
And lies immaculate under the warmth
Of the sun and mists
Hang from the sun in skirts
All the dead brown laces and grasses
Are drying out long time full blown
The ivy makes a crown
With soft green pearls
The girl wears it as she walks
High on the canal bank over the birds
And the toy cows there is no wind at all
To stir the gown
Of her gay visitor
Who speaks and smiles
Perhaps he kissed her leaving a word
That seemed to mean life or death
Here we were safe from the knife beneath the cloak—and far from the squalor and herds of London. The clouds from Shropshire sailed close over our roof—
The house shook at its moorings all
night long
The wind tried the shutters
The rain crept under the doors
Outside in the garden the tree cried
Help and the moon fled
In tears of rain
The cat crouched in the cupboard
One eye open, dreaming of wolves
And Lucy in her cot Sailed fast across the seas of heaven
Which she still sometimes revisits in
sleep
Pursued by a hurricane of angels
Baby still slept bellyful
While the Jerry rain machinegunnèd
the walls
And woke us to a quiet storm of love
That rose, outstripped the tree-stripping wind
Outwashed the rain
And sailed us clear to sleep again
Monica and I could start again, in our own way, in our own place, in our own time, on our own terms, and we could try our strength, and grow.
Perhaps, even, there were other things than poetry.
ON MONICA'S DRESSING TABLE WE STARTED OUR market research and consultancy firm. We learned how to get the big competitor interviews and write reports that scorned jargon and reached conclusions. We bought a big house for our offices. The international companies and the government discovered us and we travelled the world and the firm flourished and in the firm our children grew with us.
After thirty years we retired, and bought the Phyllis May, and Jim, and one day we decided to sail to Carcassonne.
By the way, Terry, said Monica, you told me fifty years ago you were really an artiste, so I said I would marry you. Did you say you had thought of a title for a book?
Chapter One: Their Gods Are Not Our Gods—Staffordshire Ruth, Ch. 1 • Parker/Beck, Captain Marvel • Burroughs/ Hogarth, Tarzan • Patterson/Caniff/Wunder, Terry and the Pirates • McKay/Ferrell, Anchorman • Moeller, The Intracoastal Waterway • Maptech Chartkit, Norfolk Va. to Florida and the Intracoastal Waterway • Larson, Isaac's Storm: The Drowning of Galveston • Yeats, “When You Are Old” • Montand, French film star • Avon Cosmetics, Skin So Soft • Traditional, “Wayfaring Stranger” • Lamond, Shanghai Express • Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Detention Center, Cuba • Reeves, country singer • BBC News 16.05.06, “New U.S. Alligator Killings” • Colorado State University, Tropical Meteorology Project • Macaulay, “Horatius” • Marvell, “The Garden” • Revelation, chapter 12 • Denny, Granny Buttons blog • Carolina Country Snacks, Henderson, North Carolina, pork products • Freshers Foods, Wigan, pork scratchings • Sanctuary Records Group, The Romantic Strings of Mantovani •Acrobat Music and Media, The First British Hit Parade • King, Stewart, Price, You Belong to Me • Sony Budget, The Best of Johnnie Ray Columbia, Johnny Cash, The Man in Black• EMI Gold, The Best of Crystal Gayle• BMG, Ultimate Dolly Parton • Sony, The Very Best of Kris Kristofferson • EMI Gold, The Very Best of Bobbie Gentry • Capitol, Glen Campbell, My Hits and Love Songs • Warner, The Very Best of Emmylou Harris Bryant, “Love Hurts” • Cervantes, Don Quixote • Melville, Moby-Dick• Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde• • Dalí, Persistence of Memory • Housman, “Into My Heart an Air That Chills” • Housman, “Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now”• Fitzgerald/Nugent, The Great Gatsby
Chapter Two: The Ice Storm—Virginia
Hadley, Epic to Epigram • Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket” • Samuel Dana Greene, In the Monitor Turret • Soley, The Blockade and the Cruisers • US Navy Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C., 1968, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships • Leacock, “The Marine Excursions of the Knights of Pythias” • Hume, The Virginia Adventure • Donleavy, The Ginger Man• Blake, “The Sick Rose” • Brendon, Ike • Summersby Morgan, Past Forgetting• Genesis, chapter 6 • Cheney, Vice President, when the U.S. redefined torture • Calley, leader, My Lai massacre, Vietnam • Pompadour, saying • Washingon Post, 27.06.06, “Floodwaters Wreak Havoc Across Area” • Daily Press, 27.06.06, “10 inches of Rain Soaks D.C. Region” • Wallace, Sanders of the River • Greene/O'Ferrall, The Heart of the Matter • Audit Commission, report on North Staffs NHS Trust finances/management 2004/5; Health Protection Agency, report on hospital infections, 2006 • Anka, “My Way”
Chapter Three: Stand and Deliver—Virginia
Virginia Pilot, 09.08.06, “Officials Warn Mosquito-borne EEE Virus Is More Active” • Cook, Beyond the Fringe • Andersen, disgraced accountancy firm • Lorenz, ethologist • Dumont/Vaucaire, “Je Ne Regrette Rien” • Horton, Hamilton, Carawan, Seeger, “We Shall Overcome”
Chapter Four: The Village of the Damned—Virginia
U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, butterflies list • Madame de Pompadour, saying • Virginia Pilot, Washingon Post, 03.08.06, weather reports • Eagle Pointe, sales leaflet and event schedule • Columbia, The Best of Willie Nelson • Capitol, Kenny Rogers: 21 Number Ones • Columbia, The Essential Kris Kristofferson • Rounder, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Lonely Runs Both Ways • Sun, 31.07.06, “The Rapture Has Begun!” • LaHaye and Jenkins, The Rapture • Romero, Night of the Living Dead • Romero/Savini, Night of the Living Dead• Woodward, Car
r/Walker, Can't Stop the Music• TV series, The Bionic Woman • Newman, “Lead, Kindly Light” • Jefferson et al., American Declaration of Independence • Episcopal Church, prayer book • John, chapter 6 • Deuteronomy, chapter 8 • Williams, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” • Dion, pop singer • Bragg, arts commentator • Traditional, “All My Trials” • Hosmer, “ ‘Thy Kingdom Come!’ On Bended Knee” • Newman, “Praise to the Holiest in the Height” • Ward/Fincher, Alien • Pompadour, saying • Bennett, Humperdinck, Williams, pop singers • Mancini, “Moon River” • Clough, “Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth” • Porter, “At Long Last Love” • Danot, The Magic Roundabout • Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1
Chapter Five: The Terrible Sounds—North Carolina
Football song, “Here We Go” • Stevens, “Nomad Exquisite” • Mitchell/Howard/Fleming, Gone with the Wind• Mew, “Pécheresse” • Unknown, Beowulf • Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There• Roddenberry, Star Trek• Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale” • Genesis, chapter 1 • Williams, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” • Plath, “The Bee Meeting”
Chapter Six: Why Am I So Cold?—North Carolina
Plath, “The Bee Meeting” • The Young Rascals, “Groovin'” • Gerry and the Pacemakers, “Ferry 'Cross the Mersey”• Ephesians, chapter 6 • Plath, “The Bee Meeting” • Cash, “I Walk the Line”
Chapter Seven: Sea of Grass—North Carolina
Morse, first telegraphic message, 1844 • Kennedy state funeral, 25.11.63 • Scheim, The Mafia Killed President Kennedy• Mann/Goffin, “Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp-a-Bomp-a-Bomp?” • Hosmer, “ ‘Thy Kingdom Come!’ On Bended Knee” • Newman, “Praise to the Holiest in the Height” • Tennyson, The Princess, “Sweet and Low” • Genesis, chapter 1 • Proverbs, chapter 23 • Hammond/Warren, “Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now” • Williams, Sea Symphony• Webb, “Wichita Lineman” • Whitman, “Song for All Seas, All Ships” • Margaret Barnes, e-mail to MD • Howard/Renouf, Adventure Guide to the Georgia and Carolina Coasts • Soundings magazine Jan 07, quote from Miami Herald • Telegraph.co.uk 17.06.07, “Florida's Flying Fish Can Knock You Cold” • The Economist02.12.06, “Snakes in Florida” • Sun News, South Carolina, 1711.06, “Totally Destroyed” • Milton, Comus • Pasternak/Lean, Lawrence of Arabia • Traditional, “All My Trials” • Levin/Forbes, The Stepford Wives • Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire • Cornford, “The Coast, Norfolk”
Chapter Eight: It's Called Being Friendly—South Carolina
Bernard/Smith, “Winter Wonderland” • May, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” • Arnold, Creature from the Black Lagoon • Don Hill, e-mail circular about American South • Disney, Bambi • Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale” • De Tocqueville, Journey to America • Shakespeare, The Tempest• Traditional, “Dem Dry Bones”
Chapter Nine: Even in Arcadia—South Carolina
Ragan, The Hunley • Tirpitz, German battleship • Robert Brooks, letter to TD • Fonda, Hopper, Southern, Easy Rider • Yeats, “A Prayer for My Daughter” • Los Del Rio, “The Macarena” • Carmichael, “Georgia on My Mind”
Chapter Ten: Raining All Over the World—Georgia
White, “A Rainy Night in Georgia” • Weatherly, “Midnight Train to Georgia” • Cronenberg, The Fly • Miller, Masters of the Air• Enron, collapsed energy company • Arthur Andersen, collapsed accountancy firm • Shakespeare, Macbeth • Randall Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” • Lizzie Gill, e-mail as from Simon the whippet • Roussel, Charles de Gaulle • Hill, Southern Comfort • Kristofferson/Wilkins, “One Day at a Time”
Chapter Eleven: Treasure Island—Georgia
Mancini, “Moon River” • Croce, “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown” • Stevenson, Treasure Island • Stevens, “Sea Surface Full of Clouds” • McGonagall, Scottish poet • Lanier, “The Marshes of Glyn” • Rimbaud, “Le Bateau Ivre”
Chapter Twelve: I've Come on Floridas You Won't Believe—Florida
Traditional, “Sloop John B” • Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: Prologue • Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” • Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket” • Mancini, “Moon River” • Williams Ellis, Portmeirion village • Daytona Beach News and Journal04.02.07, tornado reports • Gannon, Black May• Jeffers, “Gray Weather” • Young, Cruising Guide to Eastern Florida • Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street • Hopper, Office in a Small City; Summer Interior• Traditional, “Have You Seen the Muffin Man?” • Nabokov, Lolita • Delta rocket launch, Saturday, 17.02.07
Chapter Thirteen: Look for Me There—Florida
Caesar, Gallic Wars • The Moody Blues, “Nights in White Satin” • Meeropol, “Strange Fruit” • Oppenheimer, on atomic bomb • Traditional, “The Hokey Cokey” • Williams, “Louisiana Saturday Night” • Cianci, Full Throttle • Roth, Hostel• Heckerling, National Lampoon's European Vacation• Bigelow, Deuce Bigalow, European Gigolo • Wilbur, “Tywater” • Leacock, “The Marine Excursions of the Knights of Pythias” • Wilson, “Good Vibrations” • Stevens, “Nomad Exquisite” • Unknown, Beowulf
General Sources
Burns, The American Civil War• Cooke, America• Brogan, The Penguin History of the USA• Hamilton, Against Oblivion • Knowles, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations • Lehmann, The Oxford Book of American Poetry• Nelson, Anthology of Modern American Poetry• Williams, The New Pocket Anthology of American Verse(1955)
“Pet's Corner” from Epic to Epigram, by Peter Hadley and Jeremy Morse, published in 1991 by Bristol Classical Press. Used by kind permission of Duckworth Publishers.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” from The Complete Poems by Randall Jarrell. Used by kind permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.
Excerpt from “Sea Surface Full of Clouds” from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, published by Random House, Inc., permission applied for.
Excerpt from “Gray Weather” from The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, volume 2, 1928–1938, edited by Tim Hunt, copyright 1938, renewed 1966 by Garth Jeffers and Donnan Jeffers. Used with the permission of Stanford University Press.
Excerpt from “Tywater” in The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems, copyright 1947 and renewed 1975 by Richard Wilbur. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
NARROW DOG TO INDIAN RIVER
A Delta Trade Paperback / May 2009
Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2008 by Terry Darlington
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Darlington, Terry.
Narrow Dog to Indian River / Terry Darlington.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33851-2
1. Southern States—Description and travel. 2. Southern States—History, Local.
3. Darlington, Terry—Travel—Southern States. 4. Darlington,
Monica—Travel—Southern States. 5. English—Travel—Southern States.
6. Whippet—Biography. 7. Travel with dogs—Southern States. 8. Intracoastal
waterways—Southern States. 9. Canal-boats—Southern States. 10. Southern
States—Social life and customs—Anecdotes. 1. Title.
F216.2.D37 2009
917.5096′93—dc22
2008039205
Delta is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.,
and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
www.bantamdell.com
v3.0_r1
o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share
Narrow Dog to Indian River Page 25