Jimmy Buffett Sings Buffalo Park, Ep. 37

juliemorrisonwrite
Oct 9
2 min read

Julie doubles back to a Jimmy Buffet concert because he’s the prompt for the best poem ever, then Lisa learns even more good about Santa Cruz County than they already knew.

Mug: Tubac Golf Resort and Spa

Raul Castro, from Only at NAU

by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

Raúl Castro has been Arizona’s only Hispanic governor. He graduated in 1939, becoming a naturalized citizen the same year.

“Much to my disbelief, I kept hearing, ‘We do not hire people of Mexican descent.”

So in arguably the most colorful chapter of the future governor’s life, Castro became a hobo.

“I got a little pack, got on a freight train, and if there was a fair in town, I’d enter boxing matches. I was paid $30 if I won, and I was never defeated. I’d move on to the next town.”

Castro was surprised to enter a boxing ring in Philadelphia and heard himself beng booed. “They wre yelling ethnic slurs I didn’t know, but they thought I was Italian.”

He road rails to Minnesota, where he saw signs refusing service to Finns. Unable to tell a Finn from a Norwegian or a Swede, Castro said, “It made me feel better, and got the chip off my shoulder.”

He made his way into law, and was appointed a Superior Court Judge.

Jimmy Buffett Sings Buffalo Park

by Julie Morrison

If in my last breath, I meet only Death—

no saints or winged intercessors—

I’ll suggest we take a walk

somewhere we can talk, swap lines

from our favorite transgressors.

With life as a beach now out of reach,

this sailor will port in the park,

where song is the meadow

we’ll be the black sheep

crooning light lullabies to the dark.

If no heaven will have me,

I’ll hum myself a haven—

a place to stroll and strum

without a care,

for Hell’s racing and outpacing

by cutthroats and turncoats and those

who make pirates seem fair—

I’ll be the place I need—

like a green among the trees—

a clearing I’ll find when I play—

if salvation throws me back,

I’ll try another track:

a tune to keep judgement at bay.

I’ve lived island time,

written cheeseburger rhymes,

sailed seas too salty for verse,

sharked pretty girls, parroted words,

been every cocktail’s wet nurse,

and I want my sunset to be a duet

with the blues of the sky and the sea,

my song’s sweet sound

making such sacred ground,

I’ll have Heaven,

if it won’t have me.

Jimmy Buffett Sings Buffalo Park, Ep. 37

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