I woke up today thinking about Spring Break. It’s happening here. Families and college kids are coming to the lake with swimsuits, shorts, and suntan lotion packed in their bags. I’m sure they know it’s still March, but I get it. Whether the destination is the beach, the waterpark, or even a mountain ski trip, we all hope for the same thing—blue skies and sunshine.
It doesn’t seem like much to ask for, but spring is spring and unpredictable at best. On Tuesday, it was eighty degrees. On Thursday, there were gale force winds and tornados. And last night, it was snowing as we drove home from our gig. Spring is full of surprises. You’d think I would have learned to bring a coat—it’s still March, for Pete’s sake.
This brings me to a story that later became a song. I’ve only played it a few times since I wrote it, but I still love the story. It happened when I met my son, daughter-in-law, and three grandkids in Fort Worth for their spring break a couple of years ago. It was a memorable trip, to say the least. A few hours after I arrived, I went out to get my backpack out of the car, and it was gone—the car. I thought it had been stolen. As it turned out, it was towed by a security company hired to keep the place safe from suspicious-looking vehicles with Tennessee plates. I never saw the sign that said something like "If you park here..." with a skull and crossbones. My daughter-in-law, calm and collected, drove me to a fenced-in lot with metal siding and barbed wire, in a sketchy part of town. There wasn’t a person in sight, just a sign with a phone number. Sure enough, my car was being held for ransom. After following all the instructions and paying a hefty fee, my car was finally released.
Talk about a rough start. From there, nothing went as planned. But we continued to make the best of the situation, and it turned out to be a great spring break. I even took a ride down the Texas Tornado, a giant water slide. As we climbed the stairs, my granddaughter assured me that it was okay to scream as loud as I wanted. I did.
Looking back, it was the perfect spring break.
Here’s the story, in a song.
Spring Break Blues by Trisha Leone It’s twenty below And all I see is snow Why don’t we take a drive down South We can wiggle our toes And warm our bones Underneath the Texas sun We drove all night And we were sure surprised When we got out to take a look around The pool was closed And it sure was cold And I didn’t even bring a coat I got the spring break blues And I’m in a mood Maybe we should’ve stayed home I thought we’d be in the sun Having so much fun But instead, I’m looking at my phone But there’s one thing I know When I’m feeling low All I have to do is sing the blues Cause when I’m humming a song There’s nothing wrong And it changes my attitude Well, the sky turned green And started looking kind of mean I saw a funnel poke out of a cloud Then the rain came down Your smile turned upside down As we shivered from the cold But it wasn’t too long Until the storm was gone And blue skies were all I could see Blue skies, nothing but blue skies Smiling down on me We found things to do Ate an ice cream or two A baby goat made you smile In a heated pool On an inner tube We floated our worries away When I looked in your eyes They were shining so bright I thought, who needs the sun anyway With me and you Those spring break blues Don’t have much to say On the bright side, I don’t have a sunburn And there’s no sand in my shoes Rain or shine, you and me, we’ll be just fine Cause I’d go anywhere with you
I recorded this video shortly after I wrote the song Spring Break Blues.