Story Behind the Song
This song uses the terms "crackin' doors" and "makin' dents". Its what my good friend Judge Miner has been doing all of his 70 years. And he is only doing what his Daddy did before him, and what he would ask all of us to do. He knows one of the great joys in life is seeing somebody else walk through a door you cracked, just for them.
Lyrics
Miss Hanna`s Blue Bandana
By Judge Charles Miner
Copyright 2002
He pretty much left it up to Momma to tell us kids what to do.
But Daddy started talking` one night when there was nobody home but just us two.
Son, he said. I come up hard, but back then that`s how things went.
Ah, you can`t knock down all the walls of misfortune in life.
But if you try you might make a few little dents.
What I`m getting` at, I guess, and what I`m hopin` you`ll do,
is maybe crack a door when you can for someone else to walk through.
Why, I answered, Yes sir. Like I understood the things I`d just been told.
But you see, a lot of what he said passed over the head of that sleepy 14 year old.
Then came a day when Daddy passed away and the bad news spread all over town.
Why, the first thing we knew, love and respect drew people for miles and miles around.
Most everybody who came to the house had a story to talk about.
How Daddy showed up first when they needed that someone to help `em out.
Oh, and then a little old black lady with a pot of collard greens and peas.
She came to the door of that clapboard porch, just as the other ones were startin` to leave.
Miss Hanna, we all called her since I can`t remember when.
She walked up to Momma and hugged her. She kissed me on the cheek.
She took off that old blue bandana. The one she`d worn for years and years.
And she handed it to Momma, then they both used it to wipe away the tears.
Folded up tight in that faded bandana, I just imagine so it wouldn`t get spent,
was 17 crumpled up dollars carefully wrapped around 60 cents.
She wanted what little she`d saved to go towards heaven to put Daddy away,
Momma and I, we just nodded our heads, `cause we really didn`t know the right words to say.
You see, her son had gotten in trouble, Miss Hanna said for actin` like a fool,
but Daddy, he bailed him out of jail and helped put him through barber`s school.
When I recall all the doors he cracked and the dents he made in this town,
I remember still and always will, Miss Hanna`s Blue Bandana, 17 old dollars, 10 pennies, 8 nickels and a dime.
Right now in his own little corner of heaven, why, I`d bet my very last cent,
my Daddy`s showin` `em how to go about crackin` some doors and makin` some dents.
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