Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2017 23:59:18 GMT
“In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I trace my bloodline
And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan alive
Oh, my granddad's dad walked down
Katahrins Mountain
And he asked Tillie Helton to be his bride
Said, won't you walk with me out of the mouth
Of this holler
Or we'll never leave Harlan alive
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away
No one ever knew there was coal in them mountains
Till a man from the Northeast arrived
Waving hundred dollar bills he said I'll pay ya for your minerals
But he never left Harlan alive
Granny sold out cheap and they moved out west
Of Pineville
To a farm where big Richland River winds
I bet they danced them a jig, laughed and sang a new song
Who said we'd never leave Harlan alive
But the times got hard and tobacco wasn't selling
And ole granddad knew what he'd do to survive
He went and dug for Harlan coal
And sent the money back to granny
But he never left Harlan alive
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave
In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I trace my bloodline
And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan alive.”
As Nighthawk sits on the couch near his hospital bed in the Lakeshore Physical Therapy Clinic, busying himself with replacing the bandages and dressing on his recently surgically-repaired left knee before sliding a cold bag of ice onto the kneecap, we can still see the swollen area around the knee as proof of what he has had to endure.
Frowning and gritting his teeth as he slowly begins to stand up and hobble unsteadily on legs that would put you in mind of a newborn baby deer towards his hospital bed we can’t help but draw a parallel between the battered man in front of us, and the vital and uber-talented “Wrestling Machine” who has dazzled IWF fans with his skills.
Staggering in the general direction of his bed the “Man of 1000 Holds” bends over and uses his right arm to lever himself up onto the bed before placing his left leg back inside the recovery sleeve hanging on a pulley system above his bed.
Nighthawk: “I can’t not address how I got here. It’d be cheap. It’d be beneath me, and it’d imply somehow that you don’t know how it happened.
In this line of work there is a clock that ticks over your head from the first time you lace up your wrestling boots. Depending on the type of style you choose to wrestle, that clock can run with frightening speed or glacial deliberateness.
My clock went fast because of all the years doing springboards into the ring from the apron, and all the years spent diving over the ropes onto hard thin rubber mats, or in the case of some of the smaller towns in Mexico and Puerto Rico, dirt with poorly-ground up rocks.
My clock went fast because I wanted to be the best and for me that meant pushing myself through hard workout after hard workout. And if I’m being honest, if I had it to do over again, I would not change one thing.
Eventually, though, that clock runs out. And when it does, this is what it looks like.
There is no glamor in this, no over-produced inspirational music. There is just pain, and the slow recovery of the ability to do all the things you take for granted.
The day will come when I can walk without pain, or feeling like my legs aren’t underneath me. The day will come when I don’t idly wonder if I’m stripping an entire continent of ice.
And when that day does come, when I can step back into a ring or a practice gym and see if I can do all the things I used to do, I will be overjoyed beyond words.
Because, and if you’ll allow me a brief return to the Machine I used to be instead of the man I am now, there are a lot of debts that have to be paid. And my hope is that one day, if I can do all the things I used to do, I can start on the process of collecting them."
That's the place where I trace my bloodline
And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan alive
Oh, my granddad's dad walked down
Katahrins Mountain
And he asked Tillie Helton to be his bride
Said, won't you walk with me out of the mouth
Of this holler
Or we'll never leave Harlan alive
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away
No one ever knew there was coal in them mountains
Till a man from the Northeast arrived
Waving hundred dollar bills he said I'll pay ya for your minerals
But he never left Harlan alive
Granny sold out cheap and they moved out west
Of Pineville
To a farm where big Richland River winds
I bet they danced them a jig, laughed and sang a new song
Who said we'd never leave Harlan alive
But the times got hard and tobacco wasn't selling
And ole granddad knew what he'd do to survive
He went and dug for Harlan coal
And sent the money back to granny
But he never left Harlan alive
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave
In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I trace my bloodline
And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan alive.”
As Nighthawk sits on the couch near his hospital bed in the Lakeshore Physical Therapy Clinic, busying himself with replacing the bandages and dressing on his recently surgically-repaired left knee before sliding a cold bag of ice onto the kneecap, we can still see the swollen area around the knee as proof of what he has had to endure.
Frowning and gritting his teeth as he slowly begins to stand up and hobble unsteadily on legs that would put you in mind of a newborn baby deer towards his hospital bed we can’t help but draw a parallel between the battered man in front of us, and the vital and uber-talented “Wrestling Machine” who has dazzled IWF fans with his skills.
Staggering in the general direction of his bed the “Man of 1000 Holds” bends over and uses his right arm to lever himself up onto the bed before placing his left leg back inside the recovery sleeve hanging on a pulley system above his bed.
Nighthawk: “I can’t not address how I got here. It’d be cheap. It’d be beneath me, and it’d imply somehow that you don’t know how it happened.
In this line of work there is a clock that ticks over your head from the first time you lace up your wrestling boots. Depending on the type of style you choose to wrestle, that clock can run with frightening speed or glacial deliberateness.
My clock went fast because of all the years doing springboards into the ring from the apron, and all the years spent diving over the ropes onto hard thin rubber mats, or in the case of some of the smaller towns in Mexico and Puerto Rico, dirt with poorly-ground up rocks.
My clock went fast because I wanted to be the best and for me that meant pushing myself through hard workout after hard workout. And if I’m being honest, if I had it to do over again, I would not change one thing.
Eventually, though, that clock runs out. And when it does, this is what it looks like.
There is no glamor in this, no over-produced inspirational music. There is just pain, and the slow recovery of the ability to do all the things you take for granted.
The day will come when I can walk without pain, or feeling like my legs aren’t underneath me. The day will come when I don’t idly wonder if I’m stripping an entire continent of ice.
And when that day does come, when I can step back into a ring or a practice gym and see if I can do all the things I used to do, I will be overjoyed beyond words.
Because, and if you’ll allow me a brief return to the Machine I used to be instead of the man I am now, there are a lot of debts that have to be paid. And my hope is that one day, if I can do all the things I used to do, I can start on the process of collecting them."
Well howdy there pardner.