First Trouble

Photo by RP Thomas

Young Lizzie

Before she stood with Tex that night in

San Antonio, Lizzie had never sang in front

of a crowd of rodeo riders and hangers-on.

Growing up in Port Arthur she’d heard all

about Joplin of course, named her horse

“Janis,” and vowed to get out of town as

soon as she could.  When she was ten her  

dad died and her mom cried until a bull rider

named Griffin came along.  Lizzie never

liked him and told him to “fug” off.  The first

song she sang was “Me and Bobby McGee,”

which she purloined from her Aunt Tillie’s

Pearl before it melted in the Texas sun.  

By 15 she was ready to run and no longer  

a virgin; Tillie took her to Austin to “settle

her down.”  Calling Lizzie wild and destined

for trouble, Tillie found a job In a cheap motel;

soon thereafter Lizzie’s life and everything else

she knew fell all to hell.  She dated a cowboy

punk who had a wife and baby at home, drank

until she was drunk as a skunk and began to

roam Austin’s streets on her own.  Just as

Tillie told her it would, her day did come;

Lizzie got a gun and held up a liquor store; in

Texas that’s a stretch, so Lizzie did her four.

TS