“The House of the Rising Sun”
By Loren Hardin
The Ashland Beacon
This is part one of a series about Larry, who was forty years old when he enrolled in hospice services with end-stage cirrhosis of the liver. Larry was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, but when Larry was thirteen months old his parents moved to Muldraugh, Kentucky, outside Fort Knox, where his father was stationed.
Larry reflected, “Muldraugh was a base town on highway 31 W. It only had one street about a mile long and everything was on one side of the street. It was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the smallest town. I grew up around a lot of cultures and races. My best friend Chucky was Black-Korean, and my friend Linda was Korean American. I loved school. I walked to school every day; because it was just down the street from our house.” Larry’s mother, Debbie, jumped in, “Larry’s little sister, Trish, was really attached to Larry. He called her ‘Sissy’ and she called him ‘Bubby’”. Larry continued, “One day Sissy sneaked out of the bathtub and walked to school to be with me. She was naked and wanted to sit by me. She was almost three and I was in kindergarten.” Debbie explained that in the chaos of her trying to bathe two children, that Trish sneaked out the back and went straight to Larry’s classroom.
Larry continued, “Mom and Dad split up in 1985”. Therefore Larry, his mother and his two sisters moved back to Portsmouth when Larry was eleven. Larry stated, “I had a dad, but I really didn’t. He was in prison for eighteen years. We lived in a lot of different places. When the rent was due, we had to move because we didn’t have any money.” Debbie reflected, “It was rough”.
Larry recounted, “I started drinking when I was fourteen. I started out drinking and partying with friends on the weekends and then I started skipping school. I was a shy person, but when I drank, I came out of it. It was ‘liquid courage’. I could make people laugh and people accepted me.” Debbie stated, “Larry was a follower. He wanted to fit in, to be accepted.” Larry declared, “I lived with a chip on my shoulder. When I was thirteen a principal in Piketon told me, ‘You have a chip on your shoulder and one of these days somebody is going to knock it off.’ And I told him, ‘You do too.’” Larry shrugged and said, “It was that authority thing.”
Larry shared, “I love music, and I grew up with mom listening to George Jones”. I was inspired to recite the lyrics of the George Jones song “Choices” to Larry: “I’ve had choices since the day that I was born. There were voices that told me right from wrong. If I had listened, no, I wouldn’t be here today, living and dying with the choices I’ve made.” Larry confessed, “It’s what I did to myself. I don’t blame anybody. And I don’t want anybody feeling sorry for me. What I’m sorry for is what I did to the people who love me. Once I’m gone, I’m gone; but they still have to live with it. I just want to tell others not to go down the same road I went down. I want to tell others, ‘Be your own person; but make wise decisions. You don’t have to be someone else. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not just to fit in or make friends; because they really won’t be your friends anyway.’” I told Larry that his message reminded me of another song, “The House of the Rising Sun”; especially the line, “Oh mother tell your children not to do what I have done.” Larry responded, “That gives me cold chills.”
Since Larry likes history, I shared some of the theories about the origin of “The House of the Rising sun”. Some musicologists theorize that the song is a traditional folk song originating in England in the 1700’s and brought to the U.S. by immigrants. They also debate whether “The House of the Rising Sun” was an actual place. There is documented evidence of establishments in New Orleans in the 1800’s with the name “The Rising Sun”; a hotel, a restaurant/bar, and a social club. A New Orleans visitors guide suggests that the song refers to a madam of a brothel in the 1800’s whose name, when translated from French to English, is “The Rising Sun”. Some suggest that the name metaphorically refers to a prison, a brothel, a gambling house and even to marriage. But I like Larry’s theory the best, “It can be any vice that a person has that takes over their life.”
“There is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun, and it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy and God I know I’m one…Oh mother tell your children not to do what I have done; spend you lives in sin and misery in the house of the Rising Sun. “
Loren Hardin was a social worker with SOMC-Hospice for twenty-nine years. He can be reached at 740.357.6091 or at lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can order Loren's book, "Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course", at Amazon.
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