Tires on the black top

A few years back my nephew, Gus, was hit by a car in Davidson, Oklahoma. He was a small town 11yr. old kid riding his bike to a convenience store without a care in the world, and one hour later, he was in a drug induced coma in Oklahoma City, with several broken bones and massive head trauma. Any tragedy, especially one involving a child has a way of bringing a family together, and mine was no different. Our whole family was in the waiting room, my other nephew was just about to turn 16, he was telling his cousins about a truck he was trying to buy and fix up so he could cruise town and chase girls as soon as he got his drivers license. my sisters were trying to fill out insurance papers and discussing how to pay for deductibles and prescriptions, without wiping out what little money they had saved, and my 75 yr. old Dad was just staring out the window wishing that Gus would live a happy, healthy life. Well it took most of a year, but Gus did pull through, he still has a long way to go but he is going to be alright. when I was driving back to Texas that night, I thought of my own life and what it was like to be a carefree kid riding a bicycle, listening to a transistor radio that I duck taped to the handlebars. And the freedom I felt when I "drug mainstreet" for the first time, in a wore out pick-up truck that I paid $150 dollars for. and now as a 40 year old man, not only lookin back down the road at what used to be, but also, lookin up the road at what lies ahead. "Tires on the blacktop" is about growing up and traveling life's highway, and how a person's dreams and priorities are always changing.