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The Kittery Bridge (contains bleeped language at end)

from A Landscape of Ghosts by Rob Siegel

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about

The story of a wonderful family tradition started by my uncle Bernie.

lyrics

my aunt Flo and uncle Bernie
used to have a place in Maine
a little house in Bridgeton
to escape the city’s strain
it was a long drive from long island
up to long lake but once there
we’d run and swim and boat and fish
and just enjoy the fresh Maine air

but Bernie used to tell us
an old Maine tradition said
you should swear like a sailor
when you crossed the Kittery Bridge
“Maine is all ‘bout freedom, so let it out when you come here”
and we’d roll down the car windows
and we’d swear and swear and swear

and we’d say… well I can’t tell you what we said
but it’d curdle milk and steam off paint
and probably wake the dead
one of my best memories
from when I was a kid
was swearing with Uncle Bernie
when we crossed the Kittery Bridge

I’m sure you can imagine
the zeal with which I did
embrace the fine tradition
of this language on that bridge
but when vacation’s over
and you’re heading home again
Bernie said that you reverse it
to take it all back in

and we’d swear a blue streak backward
it’s fun cussing in reverse
we’d say kuf and tish and mad dog
which sounded much less worse
one of my fondest memories
from when I was a kid
was swearing backwards with Uncle Bernie
when we crossed the Kittery Bridge

30 years later I was traveling up to Maine with Maire Anne and we crossed over bridge that looked awfully familiar
then it all came flooding back
I said excuse me I have to do this I’ll explain in a minute
I rolled down the window stuck my head out and let fly George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words loudly and with feeling
I’m not sure who was more surprised
Maire Anne or the guy in the car on my left

when we got home, I told my aging auntie Flossie “we just drove up to Maine and when we crossed the Kittery Bridge I remembered the tradition and swore like we used to with Uncle Bernie but I didn’t see anyone else doing it. Is it possible I had the wrong bridge?”

my auntie Flossie looked at me sad and wistful and said “I don’t know how to tell you this, but your uncle Bernie made that up”

I said “you mean… it wasn’t a Maine tradition? it was just our tradition?” well that just made me love it all the more

so if you’re traveling northward on I95
and you cross out of New Hampshire
and you wish to feel alive
do it for the freedom
don’t you hesitate or doubt
do it for my uncle Bernie
go ahead and let it out

and yell what ever the heck you want to
it’s not up to me to say
but make it real and salty
you’ll feel good and free today
and I don’t believe that heaven
is where an old soul goes
I don’t believe he’s looking down
or that he even knows
but can swear for certain
he’d be laughing if he knew
that when I cross the Kittery Bridge
I still say fuck you

credits

from A Landscape of Ghosts, released March 24, 2018
Guitar and vocal: Rob Siegel

Recorded at the Roslindale open mic by Steve Friedman

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about

Rob Siegel Boston, Massachusetts

Rob Siegel is well-known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed- out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs.

His first new CD in 14 years, "A Landscape of Ghosts," will be out in April, with a CD release show at Club Passim on Monday April 30th.
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