Illustration Friday ~ Contagious

Black Water Hattie lived back in the swamps were the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the Cypress trees like sausage on a smoke house walls
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes and all of them watching you
Stay off the track of Hattie's shack in the back of the Black Bayou...

Way up the road from Hattie's shack lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town

Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down
Rumors of what she done, rumors of what she do

Kept folks of the track of Hattie's shack in the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on and the swamp water overflowed
'Skeeters and the fever grabbed the town like a fist, Doc Jackson was the first to go
Some say the plague was brought by Hattie. There was talk of a hang'n too...
But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles from the bowels of the Black bayou

Early one morn 'tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry
In the square there was found a big black round vat full of gurgling brew
Whispering sounds as the folks gathered round "It came from the Black Bayou"

There ain't much pride when you're trapped inside A slowly sink'n ship
Scooped up the liquid deep and green And the whole town took a sip
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue
Let's thank old Hattie for sav'n our town We'll fetch her from the Black Bayou


Party of ten of the town's best men headed for Hattie's Shack

Said swamp witch magic was useful and good

And they're gonna bring Hattie back
Well they never found Hattie and they never found the shack

And they never made the trip back in
Twas a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said "Don't come look'n again..... "

Written by Jim Stafford http://www.jimstafford.com/

Dedicated to my dad who used to listen to the coolest music when I was growing up.

This was one of many!