"The River's High And Fast" | Mark Haines

"THE RIVER'S HIGH AND FAST"
words & music by Mark Haines
© 2024, Haines Music
Way back when three young men
Went tubing on the Turkey.
Ignoring every warning
The stream was high and fast.
Being young, they thought their luck
would surely not desert them.
Soon they learned, to their dismay,
That good luck doesn't last.
Please beware, please take care,
The Turkey's high and fast.
Though you're young, you're not immortal.
And this lark could be your last.
Swiftly down the river,
One tuber fell behind.
Two ahead drew near a bend
So sharp that they were blind
To any kind of hazard
that may lurk beyond their ken.
They beached their tubes and fared on foot
To see what might impend.
Please beware, please take care,
The Turkey's high and fast.
Though you're young, you're not immortal.
And this lark could be your last.
Unaware, the third was swept
Like flotsam 'round the bend.
Hard upon a fallen tree,
his course too late to mend.
He clutched a branch, the tube slipped off
And flew up in the air.
Left him helpless, hanging,
It seemed, without a prayer.
Please beware, please take care,
The Turkey's high and fast.
Though you're young, you're not immortal.
And this lark could be your last.
[harmonica interlude]
The other two, in desperation,
Climbed upon the tree.
Straining arms wrapped 'round a branch
Were all that they could see.
At no small risk, they grabbed those arms
And hauled the poor soul out.
Goes to show that friends in need
Are friends, without a doubt.
Please beware, please take care,
The Turkey's high and fast.
Though you're young, you're not immortal.
And this lark could be your last.
* *
This is the true story of near disaster on NE Iowa's Turkey River in 1975. The three young men were near-victim, Mark Haines, and rescuers, Kermit Solheim and Joe Knight.

[@dougkoempel5304]

Harrowing . . . yet oddly, sublime.

[@iowalady2143]

That would be such a scary experience! I'm glad everyone was okay and lived to make a peppy song about the day.