Travel-Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

c'mon down, join the boiz, Al-A-Ga-Zam

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Never lost a duster, never left broke.

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Skint, emptied, blotto, c'mon down join the boiz.

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Circus jumpin' on the topside, 'nother town AM.

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Flatman on the grumpus, walked up the shill.

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Boyhood flashes darkly, seeing bull eying the till.

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Still can see a hard carry, cross the sawdust.

Hey Rube! Hey Rube! Hey Rube!

Smell a badge in the twilight, duck a pinch running home.

Al-A-Ga-Zam

Guessing this requires a little explanation..

My Aunt, a lady with modern morals in those ancient days, owned a coffeeshop at the corner of Ocean and Main Street in beachside Daytona Florida from about 1959-1965...

At one point both my folks worked and afterschool I'd get 'handed off' to auntie. Sometimes it'd be pretty late when she left the shop and could give me a ride home.

The Daytona Boardwalk in those days was known as a place for Carnys to retire.
Before anybody gets strange about these guys, let me say right here that they were, the old time guys anyway, some of the most decent and kind folks a kid could have met.
THEY watched out for me.

So....

As a young boy I ran that boardwalk, night and day, and got to know many of these 'gentlemen of the road'.

They taught me much, such as how to see a man carrying a concealed gun, or a 'hard carry'.

Going to the National Peanut Festival this last weekend, smelling the hot candy, hearing the pitches coming from the flats, it all came back. Al-A-Ga-Zam