Ballad of Big Joe and Phantom
309 - Tom Faile
Well
you see I happened to be back on the east coast
a few
years back tryin' to make me a buck
like
everybody else, well you know
times
get hard and well I got down on my luck
and
I got tired of just roamin' and bummin'
around,
so I started thumbin' my way
back
to my old hometown
you
know I made quite a few miles
in the
first couple of days, and I
figured
I'd be home in a week if my
luck
held out this way
but
you know it was the third night
I got
stranded, it was out at a cold lonely
crossroads,
and as the rain came
pouring
down, I was hungry, tired
freezin',
caught myself a chill, but
it was
just about that time that
the
lights of an old semi topped the hill
you
should of seen me smile when I
heard
them air brakes come on, and
I climbed
up in that cab where I
knew
it'd be warm at the wheel
well
at the wheel sat a big man
I'd
have to say he must of weighed 210
the
way he stuck out a big hand and
said
with a grin "Big Joe's the name
and
this here rig's called Phantom 309"
well
I asked him why he called his
rig
such a name, but he just turned to me
and
said "Why son don't you know this here
rig'll
be puttin' 'em all to shame, why
there
ain't a driver on this
or any
other line for that matter
that's
seen nothin' but the taillights of Big Joe
and
Phantom 309"
So we
rode and talked the better part of the night
and
I told my stories and Joe told his and
I smoked
up all his Viceroys as we rolled along
he pushed
her ahead with 10 forward gears
man
that dashboard was lit like the old
Madam
La Rue pinball, a serious semi truck
until
almost mysteriously, well it was the
lights
of a truck stop that rolled into sight
Joe
turned to me and said "I'm sorry son
but
I'm afraid this is just as far as you go
You
see I kinda gotta be makin' a turn
just
up the road a piece," but I'll be
damned
if he didn't throw me a dime as he
threw
her in low and said "Go on in there
son,
and get yourself a hot cup of coffee
on Big
Joe"
and
when Joe and his rig pulled off into
the
night, man in nothing flat they was
clean
outa sight
so I
walked into the old stop and
ordered
me up a cup of mud sayin'
"Big
Joe's settin' this dude up" but
it got
so deathly quiet in that
place,
you could of heard a pin drop
as the
waiter's face turned kinda
pale,
I said "What's the matter did
I say
somethin' wrong?" I kinda
said
with 8a half way grin. He said
"No
son, you see It'll happen every
now
and then. You see every driver in
here
knows Big Joe, but let me
tell
you what happened just 10 years
ago,
yea it was 10 years ago
out
there at that cold lonely crossroads
where
you flagged Joe down, and
there
was a whole bus load of kids
and
they were just comin' from school
and
they were right in the middle when
Joe
topped the hill, and could
have
been slaughtered except
Joe
turned his wheels, and
he jacknifed,
and went
into
a skid, and folks around here
say
he gave his life to save that bunch
of kids,
and out there at that cold
lonely
crossroads, well they say it
was
the end of the line for
Big
Joe and Phantom 309, but it's
funny
you know, cause every now and then
yea
every now and then, when the
moon's
holdin' water, they say old Joe
will
stop and give you a ride, and
just
like you, some hitchhiker will be
comin'
by"
"So
here son," he said to me, "get
yourself
another cup of coffee, it's on the
house,
you see I want you to hang on
to that
dime, yea you hang on to that
dime
as a kind of souvenir, a
souvenir
of Big Joe and Phantom 309"