May 18, 1994: We had a next day birthday party for my daughter

Thirty years ago today 

             On Wednesday I took my daughter to work at Northern Secondary School and afterwards we went home. She helped me to make her own birthday cake and I took it with us in the evening when we went downtown to Fat Albert’s open stage. We had a little one-day-late birthday party for her with candles on the cake. Mary Milne had brought lots of presents for her and I gave her a working toy violin. 

            I performed my songs “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” and “Thin Red Line” with Christian and the Lions: Tom Smarda, Steve Lowe, and Arjan. Our set was recorded. 

Thin Red Line 

I walk a thin red line between acceptance and despair 

Sometimes I milk my solitude but mostly I’m just scared 

Scared of being lonely on the downhill slope of life

without someone to wither with something like a wife 

I’m at the shallow end of the emotional pool 

I’ve wet my feet for ages here and I’m feeling like a fool 

embarrassed by my splashing ‘cause the pool ain’t meant for one 

just synchronized swimmers so I’m left out of the fun 

Some times I build the strength to look into a woman’s eyes 

but the “Hello” and the smile don’t ever get synchronized 

Yeah Women catch my stare then roll their eyes and turn away

to fill my heart with buckshot so I’m sinking once again 

I cannot take it anymore I’ve borne this life too long 

and dragged it down the road too far to find the map was wrong

Some make their way by slight of heart through trap doors Jesus falls 

or so they think when they play the part of Jesus bait in malls 

I cannot live without a love but cannot die and know 

that all of this goes round again this painful empty show 

so I bounce the ball of “End it all” against my mind’s curved wall 

but if suicide’s a two-way ride it don’t make sense to go 

So I walk a thin red line between acceptance and despair