How are you doing out there tonight?

That's good That's good This is uhh….

When I was growing up.

Me and my Dad used to go at it all the time

Over almost anything

I used to have really long hair

Way down past my shoulders

When I was 17 or 18

Oh man he used to hate it

We got to where we would fight so much that I

That I would spent a lot of time outside the house

In the summertime it was not so bad

Cause it was warm and your friends were out

But in the winter

I remember standing downtown and it would get so cold

When the wind would blow I had this phone booth that I used stand in

I used call my girl like for hours at a time

just talking to her all night long

and finally I would get my nerve up to go home

I'd stand there in the driveway

and he would be waiting for me in the kitchen

and I'd tuck my hair down in my collar, and I'd walk in

and he'd call me back to sit down with him

and the first thing that he always asked me was

"What did I think I was doing with myself"?

and the worst part about it was I could never explain it to him

I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once

I was laid up in bed

He had a barber come in and cut my hair

and man, I can remember telling him that I hated him

and that I would never ever forget

He used to tell me I can't wait till the army gets you

When the army gets you they are gonna make a man out of you

They gonna cut all that hair off

And They will make a man out of you

And this was in I guess '68

and there was a lot of guys from the neighborhood going to Vietnam

I remember the drummer in my first band coming over to my house with his marine uniform on

Saying that he was going and that he did not know where it was

And a lot of guys went

And a lot of guys didn't came back

And a lot that came back

Weren't the same anymore

I remember the day I got my draft notice

I hit it from my folks

And three days before my physical me and my friends went out and we stayed up all night

we got on the bus to go that morning man

we were all so scared

And I went, and I failed

I came home

It is nothing to applaud about

I remember coming home after I had been gone for three days

Walkin' in the kitchen and my mother and father were sitting there and my dad said "where you been?"

I said "I went to take my physical"

He said "What happened ?"

I said "They didn't take me"

And He said "That's good".

story by Bruce Springsteen

available on the album "Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live 1975-1985"

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