Good bye Merle Haggard

So I must share with you all that I got sad when I found out Merle Haggard had passed away. He was one of my dad's favorites and  an icon in my home growing up,  and an Icon in Country Music. Merle, Hank Jr, Waylon and Willie, was the music of choice for my dad to listen to while he drank. My dad has been gone almost 20 years now, I often find myself following these guys on social media to just keep that connection with my father. While my dad died at an early age of 50, the day after his birthday,  he would listen to these guys often.

Isn't it funny what we hang on to and what we connect with and how we connect. Seriously, The once hard time of a father that drank a lot of alcohol and did other things, I now find solace in that same music that made my life "hard" during that time. 

I actually have a playlist titled country memories with all the old music on there,  Waylon,Willie, Hank Jr, Merle, Bobby Bare, and I am forgetting some for sure.

Life is a funny thing. 

Though that might have been a hard time for my family on those nights he would drink, he would say mean things sometimes, even fight with my mom, make me drive him to the beer store though I was only 13 or 14. I must say though that music of Merle and Hank were also played during the good times, the happy times before he got so drunk,  early in the evening when the whole family might dance in the living room or sit around and just chat. 

My life has changed drastically, I did not go down the path of drugs or alcohol, I am a nurse and preacher's wife, and sometimes that life seems like a different life and many memories are even blocked.... but it was real and there is a special place in my heart for Merle and country music of yesterday.