Almost heaven, west virginia
Blue ridge mountains, shenandoah river
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I be-long
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories, gather round her
Miners lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I be-long
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice, in the mornin hours she calls to me
The radio reminds me of my home far a-way
And drivin down the road I get a feeling
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I be-long
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads
*************************************************************************************

Thanksgiving night, 2006: Two men outside the Giant Eagle super store were heard singing this song couple of nights back. Around mid night not many people were to be seen shopping. Still, the two men sang on. Without any care of the world. Probably drunk. Probably happy. Probably sad. Probably just singing for the heck of it. Who knows?

One of them, a tall white blonde, was strumming the acoustic guitar while a brown man with oversized hair stood company. The guitar case was open and, as the norm is, they seemed to be begging for alms.

The look of the brown man is worth describing. Long haired, with sun glasses (in the middle of the night!) and wearing a long red robe capable of easily hiding a gun. His facial hair closely resembled that of a person from the Muslim community. A suspicious cop comes around. Stands close for a moment. The white guy looks into his eyes and half smiles. Reassured, the cop leaves.

Cellphone rings.

"Where are you guys?"

"Giant Eagle!! Come over.."

Within no time, two girls joined them at the 'begging spot'. Three of them sung another song while one of the girls stood guard. Maybe ashamed of such public display of talent. Maybe because 'big' people are not supposed to beg for alms. The first girl threw in a dime as charity!

The two beggars are graduate students at Carnegie Mellon. Both of them probably having a good time after couple of drinks at a party. The brown guy had never begged on the streets before and this seemed to be an ideal setting for him to try something new. One has the option of making pit stops during the great journey called Life. To stop, see, grasp and enjoy the smaller-easier-to-miss events en route to higher posts. Small incidents like these remain embedded in memory, FOREVER.

ps: In order of appearance-->Blonde white man: Evan Wright, Brown man: Ujjwal Moitra, Two girls: Ashley and Nicole.