Desert Kids Part 2 Across the desert in a model "T" over a rock strewn hill Shooting down a ‘smoke tree’ wash My God! What a simple thrill. The Easter Sunrise service down at the Oasis And early Pioneer Day parades with whiskered western faces. In June we’d go to the high school prom at the 29 Palms Inn That’s where I first tasted beer what a terrible, awful sin. Remember Margie Phillips and John Bagley in the pool? And how they’d splash, and swim and dive And John the clown and fool. Denny and I built a real nice fort of Mesquite out in the dunes And when our mothers said "OK" we’d sleep there ‘neath the moon. And Denny’s white dog Skippy, to hear the people tell Knew every house and road in town he knew the valley well. You’d see Skippy everywhere he really got around And he’d get into the car of someone he knew For a ride back into town. Our school was small, maybe thirty-eight if you really stretched the tally Including the kids John Kees brought in from out in Yucca Valley. Not enough for a football team not enough for baseball too But we brought home all the ribbons from the track meet in "Berdoo." The Desert kids were healthy they played in the desert sun They could swim and they could jump and Lord how they could run! Out across the greasewood by Tommy Martin’s home Then back past school up Campbell’s hill like a horse all covered with foam. It built steel strong legs and stamina that’s really very rare And healthy hearts and strong, strong lungs for breathing the desert air. Then in nineteen forty-one the first week in December The desert saw a tragic change I know you well remember. Condor Field came to be our "Boys" went off to war And many of them would not return they’d be Desert kids no more. Bill Barnett, the first to go; the Krushats, Stan and Bill Troy Martin and the Deardorf boys went off to learn to kill. These few fond memories are all I have and the knowledge I can trust That this dear Desert will still be here when all else has turned to rust. And so Dear Friend, I know we’ll meet when we get to the other side And we’ll talk "kid talk" of Desert days when we cross the great divide. We’ll go out on the dry lake bed We’ll go out to old Dale We’ll go up to the Monument where we know every rock and trail. We will meet our friends who went before We will give each one a nod because we know how good we are We are Desert Kids, By God! Back to Articles of Interest