Betty Rose's House ........ By: Scarecrow76

What a time to be both young and poor.
If you needed a fresh start or you just could not take it anymore.
It did not matter if you could contribute to the feast of then or now.
You could always stay at Betty Rose's house.
You could have your dreams inspire your day.
Or you could lift your head and find those dreams began to fade.
You could be at your whit's end and ready to throw in the towel.
But you could get back on your feet at Betty Rose's house.
She could make you laugh until you cried.
She had music to bring to your heart and mind.
She was a friend you could count on even when she was down.
That's how I recall Miss Betty Rose's house.

I slept some off a few nights on that dear woman's floor.
I'm sad to say she's not with us anymore.
But in her rooms the dullest lights could shine.
And it broke all of our hearts when we had to say goodbye.
Betty, she was not the world's greatest mom.
To her little boy we all knew and loved named Tom.
But he would love if he could see his mother now.
And be back with her at Betty Rose's house.
She could make you laugh until you cried.
She had music to bring to your heart and mind.
She was a friend you could count on even when she was down.
That's how I recall Miss Betty Rose's house.

She was a teen who's body was more than 40 years of old.
She moved up north when Florida grew too cold.
We were busy then but we all remember the years we spent there now.
With Betty Rose and Tommy in that house.
Betty got ordained as a pagan priest.
It did not suprise us all in Florida in the least.
I'm glad that time is over but I tip my hat to an earlier time somehow.
Now that I see that they tore down Betty Rose's house.
She gave us all a safe place where we could hide.
When the world just made it too hard to try and get ourselves by.
I will remember that dear lady's kindness though some look down upon her now.
Though they had found a home at Betty Rose's house.


(( Betty Rose was a savior to the young who encountered her back in the 1990's. Hank Williams, Jr. had a song that always made me think of her called "Susanne's Floor". This should have been the theme song for her house though it was really just a glorified flop house for many who were down on their luck. Betty would never leave you hungry or sleeping in the street. If you could find a spot to crash on in her house, you were welcomed to it and whatever was in the fridge was another thing you were welcomed to. She was not a great mother to her son Tommy but I don't think she ever grew beyond 15 mentally. This was not to slander or speak ill of my deceased friend but I look at things through wiser eyes as I have matured (very darn little LOL) and call things for what they really were as I can. This is one of those that had me scratching my head because I can see my point but know readers may find that it is not so obvious to them since they never saw Betty Rose's House. As I said in the notes to "Sharper Than The Edge of A Knife" and made mention here and there of, my mind has been slipping these last few years and I find I feverishly have been trying to write these pieces of my life down before I forget them entirely. I do want it said though that all of us who were befriended by Betty never had a better friend though really she was contributing to our dysfunctions. She did mean well and that is what matters most. In the end everyone scattered to the winds and many I run into remember her with more indignity than anything but they forget the times she kept them alive and out of jail or worse when they talk badly of the woman's character and if these people were so great, why did they spend all of that decade at her house? That house was tore down not too long ago and I thought of the stories those walls could have told with a bitter/sweet smile I just had to say "I love you Betty Rose" and bowed my head as I passed by.Deeper meaning here would be that everyone matters in the grand scheme of life. There are some things that are an act of love such as opening their homes to you and asking nothing in return. It shuld be remembered for the kindness it was and nothing more but certainly nothing less.>

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