Highwayman Signs?

""Highwayman" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, about a soul with incarnations in four different places in time and history: as a highwayman, a sailor,
a construction worker on the Hoover Dam, and finally as a captain of a starship."

I wrote about seeing Jimmy Webb play Brisbane a few weeks ago in this post -

Sleepin’ in the Daytime (Words and Music?)

My view of Jimmy Webb's Brisbane show
at the Powerhouse

And he played 

'Highwayman' 

the song he wrote 

and that was made famous by 'The Highwaymen' years ago.

'Highwayman' was one of my father's favourite albums, which I now own, since my mother passed the album on to me with a few other of my father's other albums -

Drive the Carrot, Don't Let It Drive You

I've always liked the song 'Highwayman' as well, as I believe in reincarnation.

I always have to some degree, way back to my childhood, long before I even knew it was an excepted theory in many parts of the world.

The albums of my father's my mother
gave to me. Highwayman ringed

Half of the albums pictured above that my father had were mine originally anyway.

Springsteen, Chris Cross, the BTTF soundtrack, Beaches, Beverly Hills Cop, Jerry Harrison, The Proclaimers and the Alan Parsons Project were all albums I gave to him when I got rid of my record player, when records were a thing of the past ... remember?

I doubt if my father would have ever listened to those albums, but I know he loved to listen to Kenny Rogers, Tom Jones and The Highwaymen.

Although, there was one last album I received after my father passed away.

Willie Nelson's 'The City of New Orleans', which mum found on the turntable of my father's record player when she was giving the record player away.

My mother must have given the empty album cover to someone else who thought there was a vinyl disc in it, because the cover was nowhere to be found.

My father's ashes were dug into the soil around his
favourite tree in the family backyard

My father was in a home when he passed away, as he had Alzheimer's disease for the last few years of his life, even though it was pneumonia that killed him in the end.  

My father's body was cremated and since the crematorium wanted thousands of dollars for his ashes to be placed behind a plaque on their grounds, my mother decided to take them home and said she would just place them under my father's favourite tree that he had grown from a seed.

I told her that was a good idea, little did I know that she was going to dig his ashes into the ground around the tree.

When my mum told me what she had done, she told me when she died, she wanted her ashes to go under the tree, as well.

The alarm bells started ringing in my head when she said this to me, as the house was being left to me and my siblings and the only way I was going to get my share was to sell the house.

Then because of a friend of the family who is a lawyer and told her that when she dies the home that my oldest brother is in (he was born brain damaged) will want his share of the money for the value of the house even though they already have his invalid pension going to their bank account.

So, my mother put the house on the market and sold it and split the money between me, my other brother and sister to cut them out of any will when she dies, since there will be nothing to take.

My parents old, refurbished bedroom
where my father's albums were

The only problem was my father's ashes would have to stay under the tree ... not that it worries me, as I see ashes as akin to fingernail clippings, they might have been part of you, but they are not you.

Anyway, my mother and brother moved into a duplex that's in my brother's name, so he gets to keep it when mum passes on, if he out lives her (in that case his son gets it).

And I got my share and have bought a unit outside of Brisbane.

The weird thing was that the night I was going to see Jimmy Webb, mum told me the real estate agent was bringing around a sword and some coins the new owners of the house had found when they were refurbishing the house. 

The sword my father hid in the roof years ago

I asked my mother what sword was the real estate guy talking about, as I had never heard of a sword that my father had.

At first mum thought he must have been mistaken, then she remembered that he did bring a sword home once that someone had given him and wanted to mount it on the wall.

She refused to have a sword in the house and told him to get rid of it.

The sword was made in India the land
of reincarnation beliefs ... Hmm 

Dad must have hidden it up in the roof and forgot about it, as it wasn't in real good condition now.

The velvet like material was all eaten, or rotted away and parts of the sword were rusty.

The sharp pointy end of the sword

I thought it was uncanny that the real estate guy would pick the night that I was going to see Jimmy Webb play in my hometown of Brisbane to bring this sword I didn't know about from our old house.

An article with a sword in the 'Rolling Stone' magazine that I bought

But I had also bought a 'Rolling Stone' magazine only because I had flicked through it at the supermarket and saw an article about Jimmy Webb's new book and this was before I even knew that Jimmy was coming to play in Brisbane.

The Rolling Stone magazine that I bought

A day, or two before I saw Jimmy play Brisbane I saw that Harry Styles stepfather had just passed away and Jimmy Webb mentioned at his concert how his own father had passed away only last year like my father had, too.

Harry Styles' stepfather Robin Twist has died aged 57 after a "long cancer battle"

It looks like we all have something in common there.

The strange thing also was I laughed when my mother told me she was scared of having a sword around the house.

I asked her how many times do you hear in the news about someone using a sword to try and kill somebody in their house when there are plenty of other household weapons lying around like sharp kitchen knives?

Then as I was typing this post up, I see a guy in Western Australia attacked a policeman today who came to his home over a domestic violence call.

Samurai sword attack: Australian cop butchered in Perth home

Sword and pistol by my side?!

And the weird thing about that news story was that 'The Samurai' was one of my favourite TV shows when I was growing up and where I got the idea about reincarnation, as a lot of the ancient traditions of Japan really resonated on a deep level with me, so much so that I felt I must have lived in that country before at some time.

And I still feel that way today, although modern Japan doesn't hold the same appeal to me even though I still resonate with the country on some level.

Too hard to put into words really, but it's a feeling I've always had since the first time I saw that show.

I have the same feelings toward Ireland, as well.
Probably all just a mind mirage, right?-)