The World in 1984

When our column advanced

And we saw what we'd done

We were sure that we could never

Tell the folks back home

Said my father to me

I had just turned sixteen

And we were walking

From my school to his apartment alone

And he said

You'd think the world you're in

Would always remain

But some worlds can just disappear

Some worlds you enter just for seconds at a time

And some last until you're forgiven

When my mother and me

Take the drive into town

I can't tell if she's lost in thought

Or lost where we are

She turns the radio to 92 Star

Where Ronnie Milsap sings

What he would not have missed it for

And she says What do you think

You're gonna do with your life?

And I say You've got to teach me to drive

She just laughs at that and musses my hair

And says, "Kid, you're lucky to be alive"