Pilgrims 1 : Ritter

Ritter

Done some time, yeah, not upstate;
afore ya ask, now I’m straight.
40 now and ain’t done time
since down in Athens, GA.
Hard time, done fine, out in 1989.
Thissus my story bout a pal o’mine
and his friend Archie from Columbine.
‘S bout love and doin’ what’s right.
If ya done heard it, jes’ zip it tight.

Ritter’s Story

Pally, let’s call him that,
That Pal o’mine.
Doin’ hard time
In Athens GA, doin’ time
with Archie again.
Not the youzhul prison pal,
Ya know ‘bout those, I’ll allow;
An’ those that never had one
well, they’s just lyin’
to theyselves for sure.

Well, ‘bout a month afore the end,
Tim on the Row got a visit:
Lord, if it wasn’t a dream girl-friend.
Even a guy with a prison pal
felt goddam lonesome seein’ that gal.

See, it ain’t Tim on the Row’s gal at all.
It’s his sugar-pie daughter so damn small.
Twenty maybe or seventeen.
Pally never seen nothin’ so clean.
Archie’s droolin’ and clutchin’ hisself
thinks about the books on his home-made shelf.

Tim on the Row gives ‘em the evil eye,
Pally and Archie give him a shrug,
on the Row all of ‘em ‘ventually die.
Only, Pally and Archie dole out the books,
pushin’ a creaky, cranky library cart.
And Tim on the row gets an interest in art.

Turns out Ol’ Tim ain’t so bad;
‘snatchral just a concerned dad.
‘You guys look out fer ma baby-girl,
ain’t nuff pain in the damnated worl’
she gets a hurtin’ and you stand by.
Well, Pally and Archie wonder why.

Why them outta all the locked-in dreamers?
Ol’ Tim jes gives out a loud hee-haw,
‘I see you two dumbstruck unbelievers,
My Em’ly she jes’ likes you both,
But she’ll choose between ya, God’s ma oath.’

Well they’s a plan, o’ course
revolves around a stick-up job.
Em’ly ‘parently works in a bank.
Pally and Archie got an inside gal
Reckon it’s easy
just like that.
Em’ly says she just cain’t choose,
It ain’t like buyin’ a pair a shoes.
She says they gotta rob a different teller
She’s gonna marry the richest feller.

Em’ly tosses a coin in a fountain,
Wishes for the one as loves her true.
Pally lights a candle, wants Em for a wife.
Archie wants money for the rest of his life.

The job goes great,
right upta the time
the buzzer is pressed and drops the dime
Archie’s got bills and bonds and he don’t know what
Pally’s almost at the car when he gets shot.

Archie does it, he does the right thing.
Spends a hundred dollars on Em’ly’s ring.