on the road

Been driving through New England the last three days, some of the trips unexpected, all of them in the tireless Car 220 with Spitfire at the wheel. Got caught just west of a huge propane spill on interstate 84 yesterday afternoon, forced off the road and into Middletown, New York.

Holy Gob on High, that's a hellish little town. Every other sad shack of a house for sale or rent, liquor stores and cash-checking joints doing the only noticeable business.

We drove right through the town at a funeral pace with all the rest of the highway traffic, the residents of Middletown staring at us all in incurious resentment and dull hate. We stared back in pity and wonder.

Some towns are dead and some towns are dying and then there are the Zombie Lands of sprawl-ridden, chain-store devoured middle America.

Lay down, Middletown. Have the sense to know you're dead.

Our Tuesday Morning Music Quiz this holiday week comes from an impulse purchase at a rest area food mart out on the New York State Thruway just south of Albany. I saw "Lynyrd Skynyrd Live" and bought the thing for 9.99. Forty miles later I realized I had picked up a copy of the 1987 Tribute Tour. Charlie Daniels is on it and his fiddle is on fire, but it just ain't the same.

Who greets the crowd from the stage in Dallas, Texas at the top of the album?

Is it:

1. Brother Donnie Van Zandt

2. Sister Connie Van Zandt

3. Mother Macy Van Zandt

4. Father Lacy Van Zandt

or

5. Dick Van Patten from the wonderful family comedy/drama "Eight is Enough"?