Turtle - lyrics

Turtle
(kathy hussey)

If I had a nickel for every penny I've spent
I wouldn't be sitting here wondering where the hell it all went
If I had a dollar
I'd put some gas in my car
But that wouldn't take me as far as you are

So I'm just sittin in the hot summer shade
Longin for you, love, and some cool lemonade
You said a week you'd be comin
Now it seems like a year
I've been wishin you were here

And everything is covered in flowers
You've missed the Bradford Pear they're past the bloom
But you can catch the pink crepe myrtle
If you get here soon
You know that time goes by like a turtle
When I'm waitin for you
Time goes by like a turtle
When I'm waiting for you

If I had to carry my house on my back
I s'pose I'd tarry or have a heart attack
So I can't blame time for doin like it does
Anymore than I can quit my wantin what was

And everything is covered in flowers
You've missed the Bradford Pear they're past the bloom
But you can catch the pink crepe myrtle
If you get here soon
Time goes by like a turtle, when I'm waitin for you
You know that time goes by like a turtle
You know that time goes by, time goes by, time goes by yeeehaw

<---previous song next song --->

The Story:

July 11 2002

I almost called this album "Turtle" because as soon as I wrote this song,
my life was positively INFESTED with turtles - no, that's too negative a word...
maybe FESTOONED with turtles would be a better way to describe it.

First, where this song came from: Nashville is infamous for being the torment
of allergy sufferers. People who have never had problems with allergies at all
come here and find that in the spring, everything is covered with a fine yellow
powder for several months...POLLEN. The upside is that everything is also
covered with flowers. The flowering trees are some of my favorites, the Bradford
Pear (not native...but beautiful), and the Crepe Myrtle which comes in lots of
different colors from white to purple and 15 different shades of pink and fuschia...
oh, and the Forsythia which is bright yellow. I was on my porch with my guitar a
nd thinking about my sister (my twin) who was out-of-town and had been for
several weeks. It occured to me that if she didn't get home soon she would
completely miss some of the flowering trees - they started after she left and
would, no doubt, be done when she returned. The really funny thing about
that is that in the lyric, I said, "you can catch the pink crepe myrtle, if you get
here soon"...what I had never really noticed before is that those crepe myrtles
keep blooming for months - well into the summer. Not much chance of missing
them if you're gone for 3 weeks...but never let the truth ruin a good story...

Why turtle? Because it rhymed with Myrtle. Oh yeah, and because a turtle is the
perfect metaphor phor how time slows down when you are anxiously anticipating
something.

So, about the festooning of my life with turtles - I am guaranteed to leave things
out here, because for about a year after I wrote this song, there was a parade
of turtle-related incidents, none of which I wrote down, many of which are now,
sadly, forgotten. What I most remember is a single day in which the first three
examples occured. Right after I wrote this song, I went to Creede, CO, like I do
every year, to teach a song workshop, play a few shows and enjoy the mountains.
I had a 7 year-old girl in the workshop that summer and she came up to me at the
end of the class one day and handed me a picture that she had drawn for me...of a
turtle. I told her how wonderful it was because I was thinking of calling my new
album "Turtle"..the look on her face is the one thing that makes me regret not using
that title. So sweet. Anyway, that very afternoon, I went to the local bead store with
a new friend - we made a few necklaces and stuff and then as we left she said "I got
you something", and presented me with a bracelet made of stones carved into turtles.
She didn't know anything about the significance, which made it even more amazing.
At a local bar THAT NIGHT, I struck up a conversation with a guy who looked like Grizzly
Adams, an eccentric character whose name I wish I could remember...he started talking
about his wife and said her name a few times before I realized what he was actually
saying. Her name was Turtle. Yes, really.

When I got home from that trip, I decided that maybe I was supposed to be involved
with turtles in some way, and started looking into turtle rescue. There are several
different organizations that rescue and find homes for abandoned and unwanted
pet turtles. I decided that my mission was to rescue turtles. This past year, I traveled
to Tupelo, MS several times, a trip that takes about 4 hours on the Natchez Trace
parkway, a beautiful, completely uncommercialized 450-mile road that is actually a
National Park. What I discovered is that box turtles who live near the Trace, tend to
walk back and forth across it...the grass is always greener, perhaps? They also tend
to do it slowly (!). So slowly that they usually are just sitting there. I realized that this
was my test, and I have, ever since, stopped for every turtle that I have seen on the
Trace to assist them to the other side. I actually have a whole set of criteria regarding
how they are rescued, where they are placed, and sometimes, which ones I leave
where they are, but I have gone on long enough about this...if you'd actually like to
know more about my theories on this subject, email me. The picture underneath
the disc, behind the clear tray, is one of those box turtles, in the middle of the
Natchez Trace, right before I moved him.

Festooning update:
Hadn't had any turtle incidents in a while...until...I typed the above stuff yesterday
afternoon, and then went to meet my friend Laurie at her house because we were
going to a party. I was standing in her kitchen, and looked at her bulletin board -
right at the top was a cute little hand-drawn banner that said "Turtles Rule!" with a
cartoon turtle. I asked her what it was about and she said she had no idea (?!)...
so I told her the whole saga, and said, "Watch, turtle things will happen tonight"...
on the way out of the house, I glanced at a side table and beheld a beautiful turtle
sculpture (actually a box with a geode inside). We went to the party and had a
great time without furhter turtle sightings...until...we were about to leave. I went
to get our coats and said something about being wrong about this night being filled
with turtles, but when I pulled her coat out of the closet, the label caught my eye -
Martha's Turtle. : )