“Pickle Jar”

  

c. 2026 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(7-26)

 

 

Lost my wife and kids to a new-age rodeo

One I never saw ahead

I was too busy with my shoulder to the wheel

Earning our daily bread

Seven days a week on that bronco, busting out

And I felt like a man in charge

But when I found her note on the kitchen table

I was no longer living large

 

Lonely in an empty nest

Or hanging out at the local bar

Either way, it’s all the same

So, I’ll be drinking from a pickle jar

 

Now I’ve never been anti-social, so to speak

Not against friends and fun

I like to sit ‘round the campfires in summertime

And shoot the bull like a shotgun

But now that everything I had has gone away

It’s not the same exchange

Giving up all my free time for a paycheck

Just don’t feel the same

 

Lonely in an empty nest

Or hanging out at the local bar

Either way, it’s all the same

So, I’ll be drinking from a pickle jar

 

That jar came here filled with tart, cucumber treats

I used to spear ‘em with a fork

While the kids were outside, playing hide-and-seek

And my wife was thanking the Lord

But something changed on a day when I worked overtime

There came a visitor, unknown

And the one who repeated marriage vows at our church

Said she’d had enough of cowboys and cornpone

 

Lonely in an empty nest

Or hanging out at the local bar

Either way, it’s all the same

So, I’ll be drinking from a pickle jar

 

I gave up my job and that house by the riverbank

They didn’t rate anymore

I went to live in a singlewide rail car, sitting on wheels

A mattress laid out on the floor

Friends thought I must have had a broken heart

But it’s not quite that kind of a hurt

You see, I’m sadder, but wiser as an old mutt, off-the-chain

With my doghouse in the dirt

 

Lonely in an empty nest

Or hanging out at the local bar

Either way, it’s all the same

So, I’ll be drinking from a pickle jar

 

Done with the empty nest

And my favorite stool at the local bar

Just three fingers of Tennessee whiskey

Waiting in my pickle jar