Eight fifty.
I evaded getting rained on with good timing. I wanted to buy Gloria a Snapple for her break this morning and a jerky snack for Aesop. Otherwise I might’ve blown it off and stayed home where it’s dry and warm. Just now it’s raining in full force. I feel pretty good at this moment. A garbage truck for a service not mine just rode by. Whimsically, the sun comes out while the east is charcoal. It will doubtless rain soon again… I saw nothing unusual on my trip to the store; just a guy doing some work around Randy’s old car lot. I wondered if he was the mechanic whose business was supposed to start up by now. I also wonder how he’s going to transform a wrecked old shack into a thriving garage for auto repair. It takes money and work to realize dreams. And it takes the cooperation of other people who believe in you. But first you need belief in yourself, or no one else will believe either.
If you should go astray
And say I lost my way
Nobody will know you
But if you don’t believe you can
And still say, Hear my plan
Somebody will follow just because it’s free
robgradens 
Your post sent me to YouTube to check out “Hippo Stomp.” I don’t recall having heard it before.
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The song was not a hit. When I was a second grader, I hadn’t discovered pop music on the radio yet. At the local Fred Meyer store, I once picked out a Steppenwolf record titled At Your Birthday Party. I thought it might be good because it was on the ABC Dunhill label, the same as James Gang (remember Joe Walsh?). I was only seven years old and didn’t know anything. Anyway, the album was pretty good so I followed them to another couple of records. Monster was the best, I think. “Hippo Stomp” was on a compilation album called Rest In Peace, which my dad bought me for no particular occasion.
This all started when my brother handed me down Thirds by the James Gang, with Joe Walsh, Dale Peters, and Jim Fox on drums. It was a great album, I thought. But I was just six years old. And how could my brother’s taste be wrong?
Thanks for reading this. Take care, Liz.
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You’re welcome, Rob. Yes, I remember Joe Walsh and the James Gang very well. I don’t remember listening to music when I was in the second grade, though.
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