Chuck Gauger, ‘Thoughts’
April 6, 2008 by nowhere man
I have always been a big fan of ‘Come Quickly’, but Chuck’s ‘Thoughts’ has blown me away. Chuck wrote it about growing up in Naperville, Illinois.
Chuck explains: (’Thoughts’ was) written in 1978 or so, thanks to Roots (the book/tv show). The whole Alex Haley phenomenon made me think of my hometown (Naperville, and I was missing it at the time, so I wrote this.
I sent a copy of this to Paula Zahn (CBS Morning News) who lived there for a while in her teens, she says she liked it. Recorded in the 80’s.
LYRICS
“I see myself when I lived back in Naperville Illinois
And I remember that growing up there held a certain kind of joy
My life in all it suits starts with those Naper roots
And I bear the fruits of those Naper roots
And I’m wonderin’, when can I go home?
Hot summers there and cold winters there and all seasons in between
I’d walk and I’d love to stare all day at a leafy greenery scene
My life in all its suits still has my Naper roots
And I still bear the fruits of those Naper roots
And I’m wonderin’, when can I go home?
And it wasn’t so long ago
That I had myself a real home…
And now as I walk along these Northern California streets
The smell of flowers in the warm evening air reminds
me of a childhood young and sweet
My life’s in offshoots of my Naper roots
And memories time has bruised and roads as yet unused
And I’m wonderin’, when can I go home?
And I’m wonderin’, when can I come home?”
Photo Credits: lapstrake, MaestroBen, abradyb, Darren Larsson, Swanksalot
Nice photos…are those all Naperville?
Good job, Will!
Thanks, Chuck.
I hope they are all of Naperville. I have a plugin here that lets me search and include pictures from the FlickR website. I searched for Naperville Illinois. Do they all *look* right?
They look right to me. I live in Geneva and know Naperville very well! Actually, Geneva and Naperville are a lot alike.
Cool, I couldn’t quite tell where that pic might have been taken…and Naptown has changed so much since I lived there it could have been anywhere on what used to be the outskirts of town…
Welcome Tracy. Great to see you.
Chuck, this is THE Tracy from all those years ago in RMB.
It is wonderful to be back in touch. I had one tiny postal label from many years ago (Tracy had sent me a superb Beatles CD set, way back in RMB days) with her address. And that is the only way I had ever of trying to find her. No luck a couple of years ago. But I tried again over last weekend……and yehaaaa, after a few tries, I got through.
Oh, wow, what a small world, not only finding Tracy again after all this time but her being so close to my old home town! Glad you reconnected…see what good can come out of this site?
Yes, isn’t that amazing that she is so close to Naperville, Chuck!
I’m motivated to start posting more of the old BeatleART website up here. I have been working on other stuff of late.
I wish I could work out how to auto-approve both of your posts. I thought I had it working out previously with your posts (unless you are maybe using a different handle now - unsure).
OK, I’ll stay Chuckles. The other site we could log in but I guess this is just as easy, simply type and enter.