HOW WOULD LOUIS L'AMOUR GET ME NEXT TO THAT GIRL?

                         Nothing like this way out in west Texas
                         Galveston Bay is a whole other world
                         My wife's in her room getting over her sunburn
                         How would Louis L'Amour get me next to that girl?  

                                                                     – "Who's the Blonde Stranger?" from Riddles in the Sand


Many’s the time during my rummaging through things Jimmy’s written and said that I’ve come across things that – more likely than not – are nothing other than coincidence. This whole Louis L’Amour episode is a case in point.

For starters, Jimmy’s reference to this writer is probably just that: a reference, rather than any literary allusion. After all, when Jimmy poses the burning question “How would Louis L’Amour get me next to that girl?” in “Who’s the Blonde Stranger?” it’s a safe guess to think that two things are in play. One would be finding a name whose metre fits in with that of the song; the other, a name with some connection to the song’s Texas setting. L’Amour fits those minimal qualifications. Still, there are countless other aspects that almost make one want to attempt to design some sort of six degrees of separation between L’Amour and Jimmy. Perhaps, tomorrow; however, not today.

Born in South Dakota in 1908, Louis Dearborn L’Amour set out upon his nomadic life at the age of fifteen. Stop me if you’ve heard that somewhere before, because it sounds a lot like the start of Don Blanding’s life in Oklahoma a little more than a decade before. So, there might be some case to be made in that connection between those vagabond heroes and Jimmy’s own life. And yet, L’Amour might be nothing other than that metric fit for the song.

Before he ever began any one of his eighty-nine novels or his fourteen collections of short stories, L’Amour was the proverbial “avid reader,” and that whole aspect of his life is chronicled in his wonderful memoir called Education of a Wandering Man. Definitely a book that readers will enjoy, and it can be read online at Google books.

Among L’Amour’s earlier occupations was that of a merchant mariner prior to World War II. Not quite sailing, but that’s the next best thing. And from his wartime experiences in the Pacific, he began to write stories about pilots who commanded flying boats, not unlike Frank Bama, but years earlier. Many of those stories can be found in Vol. 4 of The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour: The Adventure Stories. Several of those were considered for inclusion in The Occasional Margareader, as were some excerpts from Education of a Wandering Man. But they did not provide the best context for Jimmy’s reference in “Who’s the Blonde Stranger?”

By chance, or maybe even by design, the closest thing to a Louis L’Amour story which correlates with Jimmy’s lyrical question can be found in that very same volume of adventure stories, even though it really lacks much invention. The short tale is called “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” and it actually is about a sailor who is trying to find a way to meet a blonde stranger whom he encounters at the landing “the night the fleet sailed for Panama.” Again, most of the story can be read at Google books in the L’Amour volume called Yonderings.

That one came close to being included in The Occasional Margareader, except for the fact that the L’Amour estate wanted more for its licensing than did any other contributor other than Hemingway. And because Hemingway is referenced about as much as L’Amour, neither was literally worth the inclusion at this time. Still, Louis L’Amour ought to be sought out and read on your own.

As a final note, let’s consider the title of this omitted story called “Show Me the Way to Go Home.” Essentially, it’s the same title as a folk song which was popularized in the 1920s by a team of British songsters riding the rails out of London. In a way, it’s a bit like Jimmy and Jerry Jeff riding along and creating their “Railroad Lady,” en route from New Orleans. Similarly, there were lots of amber-colored beverages involved and imbibed. And though the song was written aboard a train, its lyrics make it clearly a sailor’s refrain. Hence, L’Amour’s use for his own sailor’s story of how to get next to a blonde stranger.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head
Wherever I may roam
On land or sea or foam
You will always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home.

– Hang by your thumbs and write if you get work

dwd