President Harding story starts here
By 1923 Myron had established himself among the ranks at the Connell Brothers. He was intrigued with idea of shipping goods to the U.S. Territory of Alaska. Connell Brothers was already doing a fair amount of trade in Hawaii through their San Francisco office. Myron was intrigued by the idea of shipping produce from the mainland to the territories. By being positioned in Seattle he felt there was a great opportunity to ship goods to Alaska. On July 27, 1923 Seattle was center stage for national news.
President Warren G. Harding was scheduled to arrive by ship after a trip to Alaska. Harding was the first President to ever visit the remote territory. The president had traveled out west as part of his “Voyage of Understanding”. It was the embattled President’s attempt to reconnect with the people. His administration had been rocked by scandal and corruption. The most famous of the scandals was Teapot Dome. It was a scandal involving payoffs to government officials in exchange for sweetheart deals on oil leases in Wyoming.
The nearby Seattle waterfront was a beehive of activity in anticipation of Mr Harding’s arrival. His arrival at the Bell Street Pier had been delayed. Rumors spread around town that his ship had collided with a navy destroyer in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and had sunk. Myron took the short stroll from his office at the Smith Tower down to the pier. He was excited to see the President arrive. Secretly Myron wished he could get a meeting with Harding to discuss the idea of Alaskan export. Myron had studied about Alaska and he knew it was a vast land of plentiful natural resources. He knew that if a firm was properly positioned it would benefit immensely some day from the development of these resources.
Myron finally gave up on Harding as the ship carrying the President was several hours late. He went back to the office and wrapped up his duties for the day. He headed out toward the University of Washington. He hopped off the trolley and crossed the Montlake Bridge. He walked over to the newly constructed University of Washington Stadium. He had contacts with the stadium crew from his days of being a volunteer stadium attendant at the old Denny Field. He cashed in on one of his contacts and was let in a side gate to the stadium. In a few hours the President gave a speech in the stadium in front of a crowd of 30,000 people. Myron was among those in attendance that fateful day. He noticed the President seemed a little off that day. Harding stumbled on his words and seemed to rush through his speech. Harding had dedicated a monument at Volunteer Park and visited thousands of Boy Scouts at Woodland Park before arriving at the stadium. His aides noticed something wasn’t right with President.
Later that night after a six hour stay in Seattle Harding’s entourage boarded a train at King Street Station. As they sped off into the night it became clear that Mr Harding was seriously ill. They skipped a whistle stop in Portland and went straight to San Francisco. The president retired to a suite at the Palace Hotel. All of his events were cancelled.
A few nights later Myron was listening to the radio with his family. They had tuned in to hear a recording from the Victor Opera Company called “Gems from the Mikado”. Suddenly the music stopped. What happened next turned out be the first news flash Myron ever heard on the radio. A solemn and somber voice declared “President Harding is dead”. The radio station signed off immediately.
Myron had mixed thoughts about he felt about people in general. He was dedicated to hard work and providing for his family. When it came to President Harding Myron had a felt a personal connection. He had been so close to the podium where the doomed man had made his speech. Myron had really wanted to talk with the President. He had seen the cargo being slung on to the ships bound for Alaska. He felt if he had been able to talk to Harding he might have landed some deals for Connell Brothers. He even visioned shipping cargo from his own freight warehouse someday.
The announcement of Harding’s untimely death hit Myron very hard. He realized right then the peril of delay. He realized sometimes you have to move on a deal right away. He should have talked to Harding right at the stadium. That time had passed. Warren G. Harding, the President of the United States, had stood before Myron a few hours ago. Now Mr Harding was destined to be a footnote in history. He would become a forgotten President. Warren G. Harding would barely be mentioned in history books. Yet Myron knew that Mr Harding had gone to Alaska. Maybe he had gone there to hide out and avoid the scandals that had rocked his administration. Myron wondered if Harding’s imagination had been fired on his trip north. Did Harding see the unlimited land of opportunity that Myron visioned in this vast remote territory? Myron assumed that Harding probably did see opportunities in Alaska. Upon his passing Harding had been silenced forever. Myron decided right then and there that he would figure out what bounty was in store in the land of the midnight sun. He knew from then on he could never depend on any man, not even Warren G. Harding to help him.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Mayor Ed
No more Ed Murray posts, except this one. People that rape and molest innocent victims and then vilify those victims and try to turn themselves into victims are the worst form of human scum. Sociopathic pathological lying pieces of shit. Destroy their victims lives and then go on the offensive when confronted about their hideous crimes. This is the worst form of bullying that exists. I hope he jumps off the Aurora Bridge and misses the water.
Video
Another Letter To AA
Dear AA,
AA I’m really mad at my sponsor. My sponsor is a guy named Fred. Fred is a grateful recovering alcoholic. Fred says every day he spends above ground is a great day. We hang out at a local twelve step club and we are regulars at the 11:00 Friday night hoot owl meeting. I’m sober about six months and I’ve been a little squirrelly lately. Last Wednesday I had a bad day at work. My boss was being a jerk. I went to the 5:00 happy hour meeting at the club and I talked about my bad day and about how my boss hurt my feelings. The meeting topic was spirituality or something like that. I don’t really know about that stuff. I felt better after talking in the meeting about my day and my hurt feelings. But later that night I was freaking out figuring I would probably lose my job and I don’t have much in savings and I have a lot of expenses with my lawyer and court and my car payment and I figured I’d lose my apartment and I wasn’t sure where I would live. I remembered Fred had said to call any time, day or night. So I couldn’t sleep and I was freaking out figuring I would probably end up on the street. So I called Fred at 2:00 am to talk to him. I think he might have been asleep. He sounded kind of tired when he picked up the phone. I told him I was freaking out and I felt this feeling of impending doom and I asked him what it was. He said ” its impending doom asshole. Now go back to bed”. I think Fred was kind of mean, don’t you? What’s with all that when the hand of AA reaches out I want the hand to be there for me stuff ? I take my life really serious and I don’t think Fred should make light of my anxiety. What do you think?
Signed Steve with impending doom
Dear Steve,
The call any time day or night is one of the myths of AA. We don’t really mean it. Well we kind of do. It sounds so good to say it to new people. It’s one of our marketing ploys. It’s kind of like ” one day at a time” or ” the door knob can be you higher power”. It all sounds good but it’s still part of a lure we use to hook new comers. We’re sure Fred is a great guy. He may have even made up a nick name for himself like ” fifth step Fred” or some alliteration of his name. Fred was probably right to administer the tough love to you. Fred may very well be a chain smoking, Red Bull drinking guy that repairs sheet rock for a living. In which case he wouldn’t really be able to talk you off a ledge if you ended up on one. But take it easy Steve and remember what Fred said. Impending doom is impending doom. Relax dude.
Best regards.
AA
Rough draft
Here’s a new piece. It’s unedited so there may be some mistakes.
They spent about two hours unloading at the ship that day. Wanamaker had a tendency to linger when he went to the ships. He seemed to know everyone at the pier and he was always stopping to talk and tell stories along the way. When the work was done and the truck was unloaded the driver was anxious to get back to the warehouse. Wanamaker told him to take the truck back and he and Mike would get a ride back to the office. There was a Norwegian flag tanker tied up alongside the Causeway. Wanamaker told the driver that he wanted to go on board the tanker and talk to them about their order. The driver obliged and he jumped back in the truck and fired up the engine. Mike looked up at the truck as it rumbled away toward the end of the pier. On the side of the door it said “M.L Davies Company, Produce Distributors, 1111 Western Avenue, MAin 2916.
The tanker was part of a fleet that M.L Davies Company and Wanamaker had just started to work with. When he went on board Wanamaker would say he was representing Schou-Gallis Company of San Francisco. Schou-Gallis was a new customer for the Davies/Wanamaker connection. M.L Davies had been referred to Schou by a London firm, JR Wilson Company. Davies and Schou were both west coast agents for JR Wilson. Davies handled the northwest ports and Schou handled all of the Bay Area and Northern California ports. Schou was looking for a company to represent them in the Northwest. They had strong ties to several ship owners in Bergen, Norway. Jr Wilson had suggested that Schou-Gallis contact ML Davies Company to work out a deal. One day the old man received a letter via air mail from Schou-Gallis. It said:
Dear Myron,
We were recently advised by our London agent JR Wilson that you may be interested in representing Schou-Gallis Company in the Northwest. We have many contacts with ship owners in Bergen, Norway and their ships make regular calls in Northwest ports. They have log ships calling in Grays Harbor, Bellingham, Tacoma and Everett. There are also several tankers calling on ports and refineries in your area. As you know we are JR Wilson’s agent here in the bay area. You come highly recommended by Mr. Wilson’s firm. We look forward to doing business with you in the future. Myron, all of the usual commissions and fees would apply to our orders. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Rolf Schou
Schou-Gallis Company
San Francisco, California
Mr. Davies responded by sending Mr. Schou a message via the Teletypewriter Exchange Service (TWX) which was operated by AT and T Corporation. Using a rotary dial and a keyboard he sent the following message: “Dear Mr. Schou thank you for your letter. We look forward to representing your firm in the future. Regards. ML Davies.”
This message was sent on what amounted to an early version of the internet. TWX messages were sent using a special Bell 10A/B board via a live operator. The system used lines that were separate from the telephone lines. The person sending the message was billed based on the number of keystrokes required to transmit the message. Long words were abbreviated and the language was chopped up into small messages. It was a primitive version of today’s text lingo.
A few weeks after Mr. Davies sent the message he received a message from Mr. Schou. It said: “Myron please be advised ship Davenger of Bergen, Norway to come along side at Seattle Smith Cove Pier 91. Tuesday August 7. Please greet ship upon arrival. Regards. Rolf Schou”
They had a hand shake arrangement. They had an elaborate commission structure set up between the two companies. Schou would notify the ship’s owner in Norway that their representative would meet the ship in Seattle. Wanamaker would go on board the ship and say he was the local agent for Schou-Gallis. The ship’s captain would give Wanamaker the order. Wanamaker would take the order back to M.L Davies Company and they would purchase all of the merchandise. This order would be typed on M.L Davies letterhead. This copy didn’t have prices on it. It would be used by the ship to verify the quantities of merchandise delivered. Davies employees would then re type the entire order with all of the adjusted quantities and added items. This invoice would also include all of the prices. Schou-Gallis would retype the entire order and send an invoice to the ships owners in Norway. The typewriter ribbon company got rich off this arrangement. In order to streamline the operation Schou sent Davies a box of blank invoices with Schou letterhead. Davies would then type the order with the prices on it. Schou would send that invoice to the ship’s owner and pay M.L Davies an amount discounted at ten percent. Wannamaker had to go to the ship and pay every department chief a percentage of the order. This was considered a commission. The captain also received a five percent commission based on the total amount of the order. Windows 95 with Excel was fifty five years away from being launched. Wannamaker and the old man would have to price the entire order using profit wheels. They would have to line up the cost of an item and find the corresponding sell price by reading along the wheel. When they did the pricing they had to consider what an item cost and the figure out how much went to the ship’s crew, the captain, and ultimately they had to factor in Schou-Gallis ten percent. Wannamaker also earned a commission on this business. They generally worked on a forty percent markup. Wanamaker would “pad” the order with extra items and would over weigh the meat items in order to help pay the ships commissions. He would always receive a cable from the ship’s owner reminding him that paying commissions to the crew or captain was strictly prohibited according to company policy.
These orders required an extreme amount of detail work. All of the merchandise had to be sourced from multiple vendors. Wanamaker had to supply the needs of all of the departments on the ship. He had to source products for the engineer, the mate, the steward, the electrician, the boson, and the captain. He not only had to know everything about marine hardware he also had to source food products for cooks and stewards that came from all corners of the world. M.L Davies literally supplied everything from soup to nuts.
All of the invoices and delivery receipts had to be hand typed on manual typewriters. All of the calculations and extensions had to be performed on manual adding machines.
Because all of the numbers were hand typed they had to be verified and checked and double checked. One transposition of one number could cost the company hundreds of dollars. Some of the big orders would have up to three or four hundred line items. All of it had to done by hand.
The Norwegian tanker was owned by the Westfal-Larsen Line in Bergen, Norway. The ship was the second S/T Davenger. The first S/T Davenger had been sunk by a German U boat in the Great War. With outbreak of the Second World War the WL Line ships had been granted a safe haven in the United States. WL Line would suffer enormous losses at the hands of the Axis. By wars end they lost twenty two ships out of a fleet that had number thirty six. In 1940 alone they lost five ships and a total, of fifty four crew members were lost at sea. The Varenger, a sister ship to the Davenger was sunk on January 25, 1942 just a few miles off the coast of Atlantic city New Jersey. The Davenger was waiting for orders and would eventually move to a local refinery where she would load fuel to be delivered to Benicia in the San Francisco Bay Area.
These tankers were considered part of the “tramp fleet”. Trampers could be chartered by agents and might be ordered to go anywhere with a load of goods. The Westfal-Larsen fleet had been granted safe haven in the United States. As part of the arrangement Uncle Sam had offered charters to these foreign companies. Some trips were offered with the aid of convoy or United States Naval escort. When a trip was not designated as high risk the ships would travel alone. The Davenger’s trip to Benicia would be made without the aid of escort or convoy. When they left the Strait of Juan de Fuca they would go into the open ocean and sail without aid to California.
Under the current conditions the captain’s mood was quite subdued. The disaster at Pearl Harbor was still a year away. Everyone at Westfal-Larsen was very nervous about the world situation. The captain lit up when he saw Mike. He took Mike up the two flights of stairs and let him sit in the captain’s seat on the bridge. Mike took the wheel and for a moment he had visions of himself as the captain of the ship. He made the bang bang sound of a gun and said “take that Hitler you jerk”. Mike dreamed of buying his own tanker so, he could load it with fuel and deliver it to Seattle so they could use it to fill the gas tanks of the ML Davies fleet of trucks. Mike would sail his tanker to Venezuela and load it with crude oil. He’d sail around the world and sell oil to people and make a million dollars. Then he would buy a fleet of tankers and he would be the tanker king of the whole world. Mike would get all of his supplies from Wannamaker. Eventually Mike came out of his daydream. He walked around the bridge and looked in amazement at all of the equipment. The captain told Mike he would make a fine captain one day. He told Mike he would be proud to share the sea lanes with such an able helmsman. The captain told Mike they needed to head back down stairs and check up on Mr. Wannamaker. As the went down the two flights of stairs Mike sang in a soft voice “whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk. Mussolini bit his weeny now it doesn’t squirt”.
Wanamaker had stayed below in the galley. Wanamaker was finding it more and more difficult to get around on the ships. The stairways on the ships were often steep and narrow. The injury he received battling the Kaiser in the trenches France got worse as he grew older. He was going over an order with the chief steward. The chief had a full crew of fifty two men on board and they were feeding three meals a day. The departure date of the charter hadn’t been finalized yet so the men were essentially stranded in America and living and eating on the ship. They were receiving a delivery about once a week of fresh provisions to keep the crew fed. Mike told the cook if they wanted live chickens he could help slaughter them. Mike had spent summers with his aunt at a chicken farm in Edmonds. Mike’s aunt Esther stayed there with a guy she called her boyfriend. People would pull up in their cars and point to the chicken they wanted. Esther would collect the money and Mike would chase the desired bird down and capture it. He would deliver the doomed bird to the boyfriend who would proceed to kill it, clean it, and remove all of the feathers. Aunt Esther would sit in the shade and smoke Chesterfield cigarettes and sip on “lemonade”. She and the boyfriend would get pretty hammered and by the late afternoon Mike would have to slaughter the chickens himself. Mike also learned how to drive the old pickup truck with the manual transmission when he was nine. The cook said he would prefer to buy ice packed cleaned chickens as he had nowhere to keep live animals on board the ship. He thanked Mike for the offer. He invited Mike and Wanamaker to stay for lunch. He served up baron of beef with mashed potatoes and gravy. When Mike was done the cook sent him a huge piece of blackberry pie with vanilla ice cream. They were served this lunch in the officer’s dining room and had their own private steward that attended to them. Having Mike there that day helped lift the spirits of the crew of the Davenger. In a few weeks they got their charter and headed off to load bunker fuel at the Anacortes refinery. They returned to Anacortes from Benicia in a few weeks and then headed out for Pearl Harbor. They sailed by escorted convoy and arrived in Hawaii safely. A few months later they were headed for Panama when they received word of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. Mike spent the war in the youth corps. He would stand watch on Magnolia bluff using his binoculars and try to spot incoming Japanese planes. He often thought of the crew of the Davenger and the time he spent on board that day. He worried about their safety and often thought about what he would do, if he could get his hands on Hitler or Mussolini or the Emperor.
Mike didn’t know it yet but he was the heir apparent to take over the ship chandlery from Wannamaker.
Election Blues
I can’t pull the handle this year
I’m not smart enough to pick between these two
This is not an election, not a democracy
This is a quest for power and influence for sale.
On the prairie in North Dakota the wind is blowing
Through my mind and I am not smart enough
To pull the handle, punch the butterfly ballot.
Where is the ghost of Chester A Arthur ?
I think I’ll write in Chris Matthews or Howard Stern
Or Totie Fields or Dr Ruth or Dr Suess
Or Tupac or Deepak or Fifty Cent or Magic Johnson.
Donald Trump is going to build a fake White House
And become the fake President and drop fake bombs
On despotic dictators destroying their banana republics
Sarah Palin for fake Vice President !
She will strut around the fake White House in a bikini
The reality show cameras rolling, Americans watching
Gasping, sighing, laughing, taking it all in
Donald and Sarah will make more money than the Clinton’s .
And meanwhile I’m not smart enough, brave enough, bold enough
Brainwashed enough to pull the handle this year.
So I’ll write in Tricia Nixon or Pat Paulson or Mike Wallace
Or Hulk Hogan or Colonel Klink or Sgt Shultz or Sargent Shriver
Or Dick Sargent or Prince or Queen or Jack Black
Because I am not smart enough this time around
To figure this out
The handle is stuck in my hand and I can’t pull it
And that’s my situation folks
Scandal Part Two !!
Scandal!!
Collection Agency
Dear Mr. Davies,We are sending you this letter in an effort to communicate some very important information to you. We have tried by conventional means to reach you. But all such efforts have failed. Thus we send you this correspondence in a last ditch effort to reach out to you. It has come to our attention that you have spent many years attending AA meetings. Over these years you have shared at many of these meetings. Your excessive disregard for the three minute time limit has been documented and reported by several of our membership. We feel this matter needs immediate attention. We estimate that you owe AA about 3,000 hours of silence. Please see the attached work sheet. If you dispute this number now is the time to come forward and work out a plan. Please let us know how you plan to pay AA back. We’re willing to work with you. We look forward to hearing from you. Failure to respond may compel us to take further action.
Thank you
AA
More Amtrak
And pop ! Just like that
we’re sailing on air
through rolling hills barren of trees
the cattle sit still
they seem unaffected by Trump or Sanders or Clinton
or Wolf Blitzer or any talking hairdo.
Browning Montana a pile of tires a million strong
giant heaps of all types of household appliances
The washing machines of yesterday
washing away the grit and grime, the result of working
hot days in the Montana sun.
Have been writing one continuous set of prose since we left
King Street Station
I’m so relaxed now
looking out the window
watching Montana roll by
My only regret is I didn’t do this sooner
see you soon steel rails of
The California Zephyr
The Southwest Chief
The Sunset Limited
see you soon City of New Orleans
sitting sipping tea, gently swaying back and forth,
the silos empty waiting for their bellies to be filled.
Meeting people from all over the world
they come here to see this country
the one I’ve hardly ever seen
at Havre Montana all relaxed
I’m all sleepy, like gently rocking a baby.
The rails in lines uninterrupted
the wheels roll like magnets on magnets
creating a cushion of air we use
to sail across America.
On the steppes of our great nation
I saw the heartland for the first time
from the window moving by
we accelerate, lurching forward
bouncing along on our journey
my mind is clear of rubbish.
Montana you are long like California
thank you for demonstrating to me a land
without oceans and big cities
it’s just you, big and dry and hot
Big Sky country I wish you wouldn’t fade away.
The wheels purr below the window car
unusual vistas in every direction
almost seems like a crayon drawing
an imaginary scene created by a creative mind
yet it is real, it is vivid
it is not a dream
though it seems like one.
Is it okay if we slither along like this forever?
Can we bop along in perpetuity?
Can we never return to the state of immobility?
Can we ride this iron highway endlessly?
We are motoring at 73 miles per hour
not a freeway or a car in sight
this prairie parkway was created by visionaries
over a century ago
hypnotized by the whisper of the Titan car
sashaying it’s way across American landscape.
I’m sitting here trying to be neurotic
I’m trying to worry about the future
I’m trying to regret the past
I’m trying to worry about the schedule
I’m trying to worry about my connection in Chicago.
We sit still on a siding in the middle of no where
waiting to yield to the oncoming Empire Builder
me, unconstrained with my time
Irrigation is the key to agriculture
irrigation turns wasteland into
Amber waves of grain
and purple mountain majesty
and potatoes and onions and everything else
America we don’t need to become great again
we are already great.
They took his humanity and he let them
they reinvented him turned him into a science project
to taunt and tease and slowly torture
they turned me into something that I am not
they lied about and me and I’m not happy
about it.
The oil rigs shine in the distance
ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch,
it seems odd to see them out here
drilling in the rolling fields of wheat.
The Baaken field is bigger than Saudi Arabia
as long as we’re addicted to the
internal combustion engine
those guys have to do their job,
period.
Who is the current dictator of North Dakota?
I promised you all a story about growing up in Bellevue
It’s hard to think about that place
When I’m sitting here in my little Volkswagen van
Strapped onto the the space shuttle
Flying down the tracks
Destined for Memphis Tennessee
Train travel decompresses
It reduces your fixations
Sitting in Williston you can’t do anything
About this or that
Takes away your ability to freak out
It’s like being in Mexico and trying to force yourself
To have anxiety about what time to go to the beach
Montana rocks
North Dakota rolls
But North Dakota has rocks too
The enormous chariot is persistent, it pushes forward
Through the night with dogged determination
It never stops trying to reach its destination
The engine always leads by example
From the quiet comfort of my little car
I type these verses
It’s a luxury hobo hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
Kerouac rode to L.A. In an open gondola car
Some cheese slices and an old bum by his side
They nearly froze to death as they were ill prepared
For the all night ride huddled together outside
Bombing down the coast from Frisco
This is hardly a hobo’s life at all
I’m a beyond middle age Bellevue Beatnick
Riding air conditioned across the top of the country
Looking out the comfortable boxcar window
A cavalcade of stars showers the Minnesota night
These words are written to be read out loud
Picture an old poet with a microphone
Swooning the audience, emphasizing certain words
He reads with passion, he writes with passion
He can hear the words jump off the page
It’s like jazz, it’s like music, it’s like a holy convention
Of thoughts and feelings and a saxophone symphony
Of the mind and spirit and soul
A sum total of totality typed on this little screen
It’s me baring my bare naked soul to those
Who want to listen to the Jazz that resides
Deep inside me
Enough about me
How about that Galaxy ?
Are we all connected to the divine flame or what?
This locomotive is divine
As it hovers above the track
Thousands and thousands of tons
Flying weightless in to Minnesota
America I have watched you fly by
My window for two days now
I’ve seen your fields and farms and cities
Red Wing, Minnesota the barges on the Mississippi
Loading grain from the silos
Old Glory flying proud on a tug
I’m hopeful for you America
As I am hopeful for myself
This train is determined to make it
To Chicago, Illinois
It serves many points along the way
These stops are part of its duty
It does not treat theses duties as distractions
It’s part of the job
Yet it’s purpose remains unchanged
It does not change course on a whim
It plows on through the night
Pulling its cars full of characters
The long haulers, the sleepers, the dreary
And weary eyed
The foreign travelers seeing America for the first time
The retirees hanging out and poking along
The confused, like me, trying to make sense
Out of things that seem senseless
This train is the one constant
It keeps moving, staying on its purpose
The Empire Builder stays on these tracks
Steadfast in its determination to arrive
In Chicago, Illinois
Sitting in observation, observing
Noticing what I notice
I’m in awe of the Mississippi River
At its widest unobstructed point it looks like a lake
Wide and open and flowing
And building momentum
It is with locomotive determination
The river flows to the Gulf of Mexico
Out the window I see farm land and marshy forests
And the Mississippi River
And I see Wisconsin on the other side
each day when you wake up on this train
You awaken to a new journey
A reinvention of the soul and spirit
I have experienced healing
Though the lump still rises in my throat
When I think about it
I am as determined as this train to keep going
To build things along the way
An Empire of the soul and spirit
Out of this miracle we call life
Two thousand two hundred and two miles
The Empire Builder has not failed
It has not wavered or even hinted at giving up
It has never said maybe to me, not once
It has never dangled a prize in front of me
And withdrawn it
The train is focused on one thing
If I can take this away as my lesson
I’ll be miles and miles ahead
huffingpuffpost 