SSブログ

An Expression Derived From Cisco − "Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station", Part 2 [Column_Cisco Township]

One_piece_at_a_time.jpg: hodge-podge Cadillac

Here, I extract lyrics representing the town and people of Cisco from the song:

Cisco Clifton had a fillin' station
About a mile and a half from town

Regular gas was all that it sold
Except tobacco matches and oil

And once a big black Cadillac
Spent seven dollars there [1]

Who is Cisco Clifton? I’ve never heard of such a resident at Cisco.

According to Jason Fried, Harry Ballard Harris (1914 – 2005, a little over fifty years old then) is the very Cisco Clifton.

Ballard told Jason that he did fill Cash’s car up with seven dollars worth of gas[2]. The average annual gas price in 1966 was 32 Cents per gallon[3]. Accordingly, seven dollars worth of gas makes brimming 22 gallons. Anyway, servicing Johnny Cash’s car is believed to be the honor[4].

Harry Ballard Harris worked for the Utah Department of Transportation between 1946 and 1976. He was stationed at Cisco as a road foreman and initially lived in a house next to Cisco Mercantile on the south at Second Street[5].

He later opened up a gas service station/residence about half a mile west of Cisco on US Route 50/6 in the 50s: his side business first appears in the newspaper dated 1954[6]. After his retirement in 1976, he moved to Dewey, about 14 miles south on Utah State Route 128.

ballard's_ad.jpg: July 21, 1955 Green River Journal


According to Weis again, Johnny Cash listened to the guy who came to operate Cisco’s only general store where Cash spent dollars for beers. At that time, he was going to sell the business and uproot his little children from their hometown as the business dramatically declined against his will. Cash seemed impressed by the pathos of the father. Therefore, the lyrics below must have been derived from this episode:

And Cisco said I hope my kids fed
When they build that interstate

He wouldn’t say so but Cisco knew
That the Interstate was too much to fight

As far as I researched, Cisco’s only general store then was the Cisco Mercantile owned by William Richard Cowger(1889 – 1971). In the late 60s, it was operated by William Woodrow Walker(1918 ー 1984) who indeed had four children. But they resided not in Cisco but in Moab.

Raymond Scott of Cisco Automotive Service and Gerald Spears of Ethel’s Cafe seem also sold beers but they didn’t give up their businesses in those days.

Wava and her spouse Ballard Harris did close their business in 1967. But their children were already married and left Cisco at that time.

The only candidate left was made by Ernest Eugene McCoy (1923 – 1989, a little over forty then). McCoy, the proprietor of the Ruth’s 66 Cafe and the McCoy’s Service Station since 1963, seems assigned his cafe business to Mervin Jack Mills in 1967[7]. Moreover, McCoy did have children: four daughters and three sons[8].

At the end of the song, Cash writes There’s a howdy. The dialect is said to be used in the Southern United States. The former Southerner at Cisco I know is William Cowger and Ray Scott both from Texas.

Accordingly, the very Cisco Clifton does not exist. Then, where did the name Cisco Clifton come from? Weis describes that the last name Clifton was taken from one of the folklore names of the original Cisco town: Clifton Station, Martinsdale, and Book Cliffs[9].


The conclusion is that Johnny Cash seems politely collected the scattered actualities and assembled the unique character like a mosaic work. Cash added a fictional name made of old and new town names to the character to integrate pieces of the actuality he collected. The work is splendid.

But the phantasm he made became somewhat obscure due to its miscellany: it resembles his One Piece at a Time hodge-podge unknown model Cadillac. For example, how old was Cisco Clifton at that time when he met Johnny Cash?

[1] Cash, Johnny (1967) Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station lylics;
[2] Fried, Jason (2004) Road stories, Signal vs Noise;
[3] Average Historical Gasoline Pump Price, U.S. Department of Energy;
[4] Feb. 19, 1976 Times-Independent;
[5] Mary L. Hepperle (2004) “Memories of Cisco”, Canyon Legacy Vol. 51, Dan O’Laurie Canyon County Museum
[6] Oct. 21, 1954 Times-Independent;
[7] Jun. 8, 1967 Times-Independent;
[8] May 26, 2016 Times-Independent;
[9] The name Clifton is also born by a Rio Grande station located 7.5 miles east of Grand Junction, CO along US Route 50/6.

 
ジョニー・キャッシュが作った歌詞中のシスコと実際のシスコとの間には符合しない部分がある。まず、Cisco Clifton氏なる人物は実際には恐らく存在しない。町外れでガソリンスタンドを経営するCisco Clifton氏には小さい子供たちがいるように歌われるが、キャッシュの車に実際給油したと証言するひとの子供たちは当時既に結婚して町を出ている、等々。歌詞に歌われるエピソードに該当すると思われる人物は各々同定できる。つまり、各々のエピソードは作り話ではない。しかし、ひとりの人物に帰するものではないのだ。

WeisによればCliftonとは、シスコの旧名として伝承されているうちのひとつである。したがって、ジョニー・キャッシュは、エピソードを丁寧に拾い集め、それらを組み合わせてひとつのキャラクターを創り出し、それに町の新旧の名前を冠して、Cisco Clifton氏という架空の人物像を完成させたといえる。素晴らしい仕事だと思う反面、寄せ集めゆえ、完成した人物像に曖昧さがあるようにも思う。例えば、このCisco Clifton氏は何歳なのだろう。

ジョニー・キャッシュに「One Piece at a Time」という曲がある。高級車キャデラックの組立工場で働く者がパーツを密かに持ち帰り続け、25年がかりで1台のキャデラックをものにしたという話である。「Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station」におけるCisco Clifton氏とは、まさにこの年式不明のキャデラックのような存在だ。

コメント(0) 

コメント 0

コメントを書く

お名前:[必須]
URL:
コメント:
画像認証:
下の画像に表示されている文字を入力してください。

※ブログオーナーが承認したコメントのみ表示されます。