Day 45 of 365 (On the Nickle Over There)

I have not been up to snuff of late and thus the writing has slowed.  I haven’t really been even trolling Facebook for interaction.  Mostly I have been playing catch up at work.  Well, that and ducking the lobs fired at me for being on the school board.

Tonight I did check into Facebook.  About the only thing I saw on there that made any difference to me was a notice that Ralph Waite had died.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Walton’s.  I actually liked Andrew Duggan better as the father and Patricia O’Neal as the mother.  I know, I am a heretic. 

But through the years Ralph Waite has been in a number of movies and television series.  His roles only seem to get better with age. (Good gosh with his passing Bones and NCIS will have to deal with his passing).

In roughly 1980 or so I went to see Tom Waits perform at the Royal Oak Music theatre.  It was an amazing night.  The highlight for me (besides him suggesting that the patrons on either side of heckler beat the drunken lout) was his rendition of a song called “On the Nickel.”  The song was written for a movie that Ralph Waite had created about the homeless in Los Angeles. 

Here is Tom Waits singing that song.  I offer it as a tribute to Ralph Waite.