Oh everybody’s got a Blue Star Highway
To take them somewhere else
No matter where you go — you only need to know
The road back to yourself
Yes, everybody’s got a Blue Star Highway
In their heart or in their mind
‘N’ what keeps us here is mainly fear
Of what we will or will not find
Megon McDonough ~ Blue Star Highway
Wow, I am probably not the only one thinking: “Where does the time go?” I wrote this song in 1992, after I’d had my son, Denvir, and I will play it at The Woodstock Opera House on July 16 in my show A Girl And Her Guitar.
I grew up in Crystal Lake, a couple miles from The Opera House on West Hillside Road, with — literally — a white picket fence in front of our house and a beautiful oak tree, which is the main reason my father bought the place in the ’50s. It was heaven. I would drive those back roads way too fast. In fact, I learned how to drive on those roads when I was about 13 in Danny Powell’s little VW Bug — on a shift stick, no less! To this day, one of my favorite questions to ask people is “Who taught you how to drive?”
Danny not only taught me how to drive, but he constantly encouraged me to sing, too, and play my guitar. He’d always be saying, “Bring your guitar to my parents party!”
I’m really looking forward to this show for many reasons. I’ll get to see some family and friends. We will all, most likely, be a little surprised and accepting of the changes we see in each other.
Danny won’t be there though.
See, Danny was the first gay person I ever knew. He and his family moved into the neighborhood when I was about 10, and he loved my sister, Kevin, because she was the most irreverent, passionate, creative, talented person I ever knew. She was an actress and painter, and had been in several plays at Crystal Lake Community High School. She was planning to go to The Royal Academy after graduation to study acting and art, but was killed in a car accident her senior year on her way to the local theater to meet her boyfriend, who was in rehearsal for a play. We were shocked, and broken in places that healed over time, but the bones never really got set right.
We were heartbroken. Especially Danny. He lost one person who loved him and supported him and “got” him unconditionally.
He moved to the city after school, and changed his name to Chris. He was closing up a bar where he worked late one night and was the victim of a stabbing. I had been living in Los Angeles at the time, and didn’t hear until weeks after it happened.
So, I will sing Blue Star Highway for Danny. And for all the beautiful souls I knew and loved when I was just a girl and her guitar.
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