500 miles

 

The song is generally credited as being written by Hedy West, and a 1961 copyright is held by Atzal Music, Inc."500 Miles" is West's "most anthologized song." Some recordings have also credited Curly Williams, or John Phillips as co-writers although Phillips admits he had only rearranged it and "didn't deserve the credit". David Neale writes that "500 Miles" may be related to the older folk song "900 Miles" (Roud 4959), which may itself have origins in the southern American fiddle tunes "Reuben's Train" and "Train 45". Johnny Cash is known to have placed "500 Miles" on his list of 100 essential country songs in the early 1970’s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Miles

The most commercially successful version of the song was Bobby Bare's in 1963. His version became a Top 10 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, as well as a Top 5 hit on both the Country and Adult Contemporary charts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw57Vvfz57I

Although the song has been covered by a variety of artists, the version I like the best is the one recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary, which was one of the songs on their first album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADN1lLEp3H0

The comments attached to this video, incidentally, will bring a lump to your throat. Here is one example:

“Every time I hear this song I think of my dearest Lynn. I loved you so, baby. I'm taking care of our boy as best as I can but he misses his mommy so much - as I miss you. You are so far away from us in time, now. I long so to hold you again but I have to stay here until he's grown... I will always love you. Always. Thank you for loving me while you were here on Earth.”

I’ve been on a literary journey of my own now for more than 100 years. This article happens to be #500 in a series that now covers more than 60 topics, and has scored more than 300,000 “hits” in over 100 countries.

By coincidence, “500 miles” also takes on a personal significance to me.

When I retired (for the first time), we considered moving to Walla Walla, Washington because it was rated as a good place to retire. However, since it was 1500 miles away from my sister in Los Angeles, and 1500 miles to Sharon’s sisters in Minnesota, we decided that it was not a practical choice. Our second choice became Arizona, and since Kelly wanted to start her nursing program at NAU, Flagstaff became our first retirement home. Ultimately, both of our kids moved to Tucson, which became out next retirement home, in 2015.

In 2016, Kelly married a guy who had always loved Colorado, so it was just a matter of time before the two of them moved to Colorado, which happened in April of this year.

Her new home, Bayfield, Colorado, happens to be 513 miles from our home in Tucson. Meanwhile, my sister lives in Los Angeles, which is 496 miles from our house.

That’s all for now. By the way, if you check the number of words in this story, you’ll find that there are a tad over 500 words.

How’s that for a coincidence?