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GSECTION

EYESTREET

SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2008 Eye Street editor: Jennifer Self 395-7434 fax: 395-7519 e-mail: eyest@bakersfield.com

Great.Theres my electrician. The guy who wired my free

Jacuzzi.I cant believe youre in here seeing a shrink, he

said, beating me to the punch.The relative funk that has wafted through my life

lately has led me to counseling. Counseling soundsbenign, doesnt it? Counseling might be more of a col-laborative effort. Something you do sitting up ratherthan lying on a couch sobbing, scissor-kicking, andpouring your guts out.

Counseling sounds like two adults getting togetherexchanging some light, therapeutic wisdom. Whoknows which one will receive the most benefit? Well

just share, wont we?My first session was in January. It was foggy out-

side. It was so foggy outside that it was foggy inside

the waiting room.The gloom was thick. It was so gloomy that I skipped

the article in Newsweek about how dangerous Pak-istan is. Pakistan will send you into a tailspin that noteven Mothers little helper can arrest.

It was just me and a woman about my age in the

waiting room. I wondered what constituted properwaiting room etiquette. Do you ask why they arethere?

If you do, you might be doing their psychologist afavor. You are akin to the warm-up band. You loosenup the room and dispose of the elementary chit-chatthat is unlikely to lead to a therapeutic breakthroughanyway.

I drove all the way from Tehachapi, she said. Itwas hard.

I nodded my head, but didnt respond. When prac-ticing waiting room therapy, I find it helpful to pause,let the information sink in and act thoughtful, much inthe same way as the $90-per-hour people do.

Was it hard because of the fog bank outside? Or wasit the fog inside that was the problem? If it was thelatter, I understood perfectly because although I lived

much closer, it wasnt an easy drive for me either.I know what you mean, I said cryptically, leaving

it open to further interpretation and signalling that Iunderstood her perfectly, regardless of the ambiguity.

I jerked my head back against the wall and banged itagainst the frame of an impressionist painting.

Although I hadnt meant to do this, it might have sig-nalled an act of self-loathing clear to anyone who hadwitnessed it. I could see the receptionist behind theglass:

We have a head banger here. Call security.I decided the head-back-against-the-picture was

probably not a good look, and if nothing else, wouldundermine the therapeutic confidence of the womanwho had driven in from Tehachapi and who was rely-ing on me as the conduit for pre-therapeutic musings.

She went quiet. I couldnt blame her. Head bangersmake me nervous too.

Recently, I again found myself in the waiting room

with the aforementioned electrician, in whoseestimation I had dropped 60 amps because ofmy presence there. The natural question had

to be: What was he doing there? But I resolved not togo down that road and instead just hung my head inshame, which was more of an accurate reflection ofhow I felt anyway.

Im in the newspaper business. People crack up allthe time. Its just a matter of when.

Before we could continue thewaiting room repartee, he wascalled in. Wed take it up thenext time he came over tohang a ceiling fan. A goodwaiting room shrink alwaysremembers where he leftoff.

Bumping into acquaintance at shrink makes for awkward moment

BY SHELLIE BRANCO

Californian staff writer

e-mail: sbranco@bakersfield.com

ou still detect wonder in the gravelly voice on the oth-er end of the line.

Can you imagine,Merle Haggard asks, thatthere used to be 30pas-senger trains a day cometo Santa Fe in about thesame amount to east Bak-ersfield, Southern Pacific?

And the railroad yard was about theexpanse of six miles that laid out therebeside Edison Highway ...

They used to make up trains atnight, dont you see? And theyd sailthose cars on down there without any engine at about 20 mile anhour into the next train and it would hit real hard and it wouldsound like a train wreck.

It brings to mind a young kid lying awake in Oildale, a Santa FeRailway mans son hoping to join the commotion.

Bakersfield is unrecognizable, Haggards been known to say.And it must seem different every time he comes down, the last,most notable visit on Feb. 13 for the dedication of Merle HaggardDrive and his show at the Fox Theater.

You pick up different sounds as Merle Haggard, who turns 71today, talks on the phone from his ranch outside Redding. Crow-ing roosters, a few rock guitar riffs, his teenage kids taking phonecalls. The youngest of his litter of six are getting ready to fly thecoop.

Were at the tail end of a beautiful period with these children,he says.

WE LOVEMOM!There are a lifetime of precious

experiences with Mom, but we want

your most special moment. The

sympathetic way she squeezed your

hand before the first day of school?

The advice she gave you before your

wedding? A casual moment watching

the sun set? Let us know, in 250

words or fewer, about that precious

moment. Wed love a picture of you

and Mom, or just Mom.

To submit your story and photo,

go to Bakersfield.com/yourwords in

the Mothers Day category.

Or e-mailjself@bakersfield.com.

Mail submissions to Jennifer

Self/Mothers Day, P.O. Bin 440,

Bakersfield, 93302.

INSIDE TRAVEL: Feel the power of Hoover Dam, G8

Bakersfield.comRead Herb Benhams archived columns at Bakersfield.com/Benhamand listen to him read his columns at Bakersfield.com/multimedia

ASK MERLEWe asked readers to send their questions for Merle Haggard. Here are his answers:

Q.I have recently purchased theCD and DVD Last of theBreed with Willie Nelson andRay Price and, of course, Merle

Haggard. Do you ever plan on touringwith them again, and if you do, pleasecome to Bakersfield with it.John Greenelsh, Tehachapi

A.We plan to coincide The GreenTrain from Portland to Washing-ton, D.C.,via New Orleans, andits our plan to coincide some of

those stops with the Last Breed tour.Well endorse a train and well appearat different stops designated and doshows and well ride it from time totime, taking place over a period ofabout six weeks.(The project is slatedfor April 2009, and Bakersfield mightbe one of the stops.)

Q.I heard Merlehad modeltrains running

through hishouse at the base of the

Kern River Canyon. Is thistrue? Did Merle have ahorse that drowned in the

small lake in the front ofthe Kern River home?

Darla Miller

A.Ive got em

runningthrough myhead. Theyre

everywhere. Trains havealways been a fantasy of

my life and Ive got modeltrains, and trains, andfilms of trains.

I had a train that ran com-pletely around the upperstructure of the house

that was a 750 feet circlethat encircled that upper

layer (upstairs) and a fullroom that was dedicatedto the yard. It was a quar-

ter-inch scale model rail-road.

We had thishigh-spiritedhorse and my

trainer was mycousin. The

horse was

about 2 yearsold and his

name was Dad-dy Frank and

hed won every-thing wed en-tered him in

and he was ex-ercising him

one day andtook him downand get a drink

of water and(the horse) just

pitched downand almostdrowned, had a

heart attackand died. Just

flipped right out in thewater with him holdingthe horse.

BURY HIM IN BAKERSFIELD

YPHOTO COURTESYOF GILL A. PEDERSEN

Bonnie Owens, Merle Haggard and Gill Pedersen at Mead-ows Field, 1973. Haggard received a model of the planefrom his first solo flight at Minter Field. He overcame hisfear of flying by learning to fly and receiving his pilot cer-tificate in both single and twin engine aircraft. He was in-structed by his friend, Pedersen.

Please turn to MERLE / G6

PHOTO COURTESY OF LILLIAN HAGGARD HOGE

Merle Haggard, right, with his beloved terrier, Jack, and neighbor-hood playmates Walden Snyder, left, and Pete Snyder, center, in frontof the Haggards famed converted-boxcar home in Oildale, 1944. Theboys, who would have been about 7, spent a lot of time together.

Today Merles 71st birthday

BAKERSFIELDSORIGINAL BAD BOYhas two simple words

for fans andcritics:

Thank you.

Herb Benham

Californian columnist

1944

1973

Q. Do you dance? A. No (laughs). But I like to play for people who do.

Q. How do you want your family and friends to remember you?Carole Hammonds, Ceres

A. Aw, just remember me. Im gonna put on my headstoneEverybody Dance. Thats what Ive decided here lately. Ichange it every now and then. I think that would be clever.

CALIFORNIAN FILEPHOTO

Merle Haggard,1990 Kern

County Fair.

1990

hbenham@bakersfield.com

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The star made Merle Haggard Day a fami-ly event, sharing it with wife, Theresa, theirchildren Binion and Jenessa, and Merlesolder sister, Lillian, among many other rela-tives and friends. He asked a film crew to fol-low him around and record the day.

His publicist called The Californian a weeklater.

Merle was so happy, she explained, that hewanted to talk to the paper about it.

It was kinda tender, touching for me, hesays the following week. I dont knowwhether anybody else felt the vibes. But itwas really a great moment. For me not torespond and say anything, I just thought it

was appropriate for me to say more than Idid.

And so an interview originally plotted for30 minutes turned into nearly two (herecalled it as three) hours of meanderingconversation you might have with a friendover waffles at Zingos Cafe, or some othereccentric pit stop on an American highway.There was good-natured political bashing,then talk of movies, music and old-time radio,great train journeys of the world, killjoys, hismothers lovely penmanship (a lost art), thedeath of a pet.

The rebel who imparted a warm nostalgiato songs like Mamas Hungry Eyes andSing Me Back Home appears to be comingback more often these days he says thatsbecause of his aging relatives.

Merles not committed to the ranch. Heand Theresa are liable to live anywhere, be iton a Lake Shasta houseboat where he partiedit up in younger days or in Nevada, which isfriendlier to the tax-shy.

But Oildales famous son will be buried

here. He and sister Lillian have their plots.Bakersfield, Merle Haggard says, will

always be home.He believes he was silly to let go of that

property by the Kern River.

HomeThe committee that organized the street

naming took a rock from his old home by theKern. Itll get a plaque and a new home onMerle Haggard Drive.

That announcement was one of the mosttouching experiences of the big day.

It could outlive the planet, he says. Isuggested they put it at the airport.

If you travel a few miles east of his road outto the bluffs, youll hit Greenlawn Cemetery.Buried there are Merles brother, Lowell,their railroading daddy, James and, by mostaccounts an endlessly patient mother,Flossie.

Haggards biopic will revolve around thewoman he seems to have put on a pedestal.The working title is Mama Tried.

She was a penmanship champion in thestate of Oklahoma when she was 16, he says.She could scroll write as fast as you couldtalk. And she could do shorthand or longhandand won a championship and a scholarshipfor college. And her Daddy called her a liarand put her back in the cotton patch.

How things could have been different ifMama had gone to college.

She brought that certificate home fromschool, he adds. And he called her a liarand whipped her ass and put her in the cottonpatch.

He breaks into raspy laughter.She never forgot that. He lived to be 95.

My mother never got over that completely, I

dont think.The idea of a Merle Haggard film has been

idling more than 30 years. Over and overHollywoods told him, Just a few morethings and itll be ready.

Hes convinced the project will get underway by the end of the year. Thats because,this time, hes writing it.

Im about 30 percent through writing my

own movie, he says. Im writing all the dia-logue, the charactership, the way it laysdown. Im doing it on tape, explaining andIm gonna have a professional reader comeout and read it, like the last piece of (exple-tive) I heard. And if it doesnt suit everybodybetter, then Ill turn it back over to those whohave failed for the last 35 years.

He wants to go big budget, not the smaller,highbrow indie treatment. Robert Duvall waslinked to past attempts at the film. Haggardmight give him a shot at producing or direct-ing.

Haggard says hell need an unknown toplay him. The Blackboard, the Lucky Spot,allthe old honky-tonks would be part of telling

the story of his early life; the run-ins with thelaw; a tumultuous marriage to first wife,Leona; the music that occurred as a sideeffect to his life. And hell tell that storythrough new songs. Hes working on thesoundtrack.

The singer has taken in films of other stars:

Ray Charles, old friend Johnny Cash, JerryLee Lewis, Hank Williams.

He finds it impossible to cram his entirelife story and his mothers into 90 min-utes.

The most interesting part of my life tookplace in those years of her striving to make itwith her husband dying and a wild kid.

Dreams and flashbacks will cover swathsof his life and explain the stories behind themusic.

Well go back from my mothers point ofview and visit her life in Oklahoma before Iwas born, if just for a moment. Then well goback to her riding the bus to see me in SanQuentin.

Itll be about her and the story of mybeginning success as sort of an undertow ofthe real story, he says. Its more abouther.

AwayWhy should we honor this guy? Merle got

famous and took off. Buck Owens stayed.Now that was a man true to Bakersfield.

Locals have debated these points for years.One Bakersfield.com blogger didnt put it

so gently: How does it feel to be a convictedfelon (thief, burglary and robber) and have atown name a street after you?

Did he have a clothespin on his nose whenhe was talking? Haggard retorted. I dontknow, everybodys to their own opinion.Some people wouldnt be happy with any-thing.

A few things happened to him that didnthappen to Buck, he says. Namely that time inSan Quentin.

I was pardoned by then-Gov. Ronald Rea-gan unconditionally, so I dont have to apolo-

gize to anybody about my past any longer,he adds.

The people that dont want to forgive, itsays somewhere in the Scripture they wontbe forgiven. So let em suffer and stew inthose bad feelings, if they like.

But that doesnt answer the question ofwhy he didnt stick around.

I must have been a seeker, Haggardsays.

He once settled on the Central Coast (a sec-ond home for many valley residents), inGrover City, where his mother and sisterstayed for a while. As Haggard puts it, hehasnt hung his hat anywhere for long.

As soon as you find out Bakersfield is notthe only place in California, it would be sillyfor a guy like me to isolate himself to Bakers-field, he says.

Merle hopes the people who still have achip on their shoulder will reconsider.

If we can soften somebodys heart and letthem know Im sincere ... maybe them oldhard-nosed guys that didnt want that streetnamed Merle Haggard, maybe theyll say,Wahlll, maybe hes all right after all.

In the old days Haggard never could havedreamed his hometown, which over the yearshas maintained a love-hate relationship withhim, would roll out the honors as it did in

February.It would have been an impossibility, hesays. Theres a lot of cliches, like if you wantto make God laugh, tell him your plans, or ifyou could see into the future, you wouldntbelieve it. My life has been a collection ofunbelievable occurrences, and I dont knowwhat its all about.

SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2008 EYE THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN G5

MERLE: Planned movie will focus heavily on life of his beloved mom, FlossieContinued from G1

MERLE ON:

SIDE PROJECTSMerle met with potentialbusiness partners the morn-ing of the street dedication

about his idea of an organicmall with local products.

Maybe it would be home toa noon broadcast on satelliteradio, perhaps something like

one-time tour buddy Bob Dy-lans Theme Time Radio Hour.

Hes on board with anotherenvironmentally friendlyproject,The Green Train.Powered by alternative fuels, itwill travel the country startingApril 2009, says project head

Bob Wolf. Merle and otherstars will give concerts at vari-

ous stops along the way toraise awareness about the en-vironment.

Haggards worked on anagreement with Wal-Mart,something along the lines ofthe Eagles album distributedexclusively with the corpora-

tion.

Its debatable, I guess, as to

whether theyre destroying orbuilding America, he says ofWal-Mart. But they are at the

moment the greatest outlet ofmusic in the world. They con-trol about 70 percent of every-

thing. ... If you make a deal withWal-Mart, its like making a

deal with 70 percent of theworld.

EGOI dont need anything else to

ever happen in my life, hesays. I can pick up the phoneand call most anybody in the

world I want to and theyll talkto me. And that means more to

me than a big bank account.Theres power in that.

Isnt the hero worship creepy?

You know, strangely enough, Inever thought of it that way,he says. It came about gradu-

ally over the last 50 years. Andit just, like, it finally got to

where I kinda act like every-body knows me. And if theyspeak, I speak back. Here at the

grocery store nobody gives meproblems, nobody asks for au-

tographs. Theres a lot of re-spect here in this town.

NAME, FAMILY AND FAMEIt gets to where my wife, Imsure, would like to never see

the name again ... in the wrongtime of the month, Im sure she

doesnt want to hear it, hejokes. But the other time ofthe month, she loves it. Its tire-

some to be Merle Haggardschild or Merle Haggards wife

and overwhelming at the sametime because they have to putup with everything I do, but

they dont get all the glory forit.

Bakersfield.comFor more Merle and odd bits of the conver-sation, visit Bakersfield.com and ShellieBrancos blog,

people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/sbranco.

FOOD

Recipe book serves upscores of chicken dishesBY J.M. HIRSCH

AP Food Editor

In the world of cookbooks andfood magazines, rule No. 1 is simple chicken sells.

Americans have a seeminglyinsatiable appetite for chicken.Between 1970 and 2004, chickenconsumption more than doubled tonearly 60 pounds per person a year,federal data show.

Which is why smart editors filltheir pages with a steady stream ofrecipes for all manner of chickendishes. Of course, that can create abit of chicken recipe clutter. How to

decide which recipes merit clipping?The editors at Cooks Illustrated

magazine aim to make that easierwith their latest cookbook, TheBest Chicken Recipes, a weightycollection of their top tips andrecipes for buying, prepping andcooking chicken.

From most publishers, the titlewould be mostly meaningless even wishful marketing. But thefolks behind Cooks Illustratedpainstakingly test each recipedozens of times during develop-ment.

The recipes range from starters(such as Party Chicken Skewers)to chilies (White Chicken Chili) toslow, fast, light and leftovers(such as Moo Shu Chicken).

Heres a sample recipe to test foryourself. Red-cooked chicken isslowly simmered in a broth of darksoy sauce, rice wine, ginger, scal-

lions and star anise. Delicious.

RED-COOKED CHICKENStart to finish: 112 hours (45 min-

utes active)Servings: 4 to 6

4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chick-en pieces (split breasts cut in half,drumsticks, and/or thighs),trimmed of excess fat

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plusmore as needed

6 medium garlic cloves, mincedor pressed through a garlic press(about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons minced or gratedfresh ginger

1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns3 whole star anise1/2 cup dark soy sauce1/3 cup low-sodium chicken

broth1/4 cup Chinese rice cooking

wine or dry sherry3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil3 tablespoons light brown sugar

4 hard-cooked eggs, peeledPat the chicken dry with paper

towels.In a large Dutch oven over medi-

um-high, heat the oil until justsmoking. Brown half of the chicken

on both sides, 5 to 8 minutes perside, reducing the heat if the panbegins to scorch.

Transfer the chicken to a plate,leaving the fat in the pot. Returnthe pot to medium-high heat andrepeat with the remaining chick-en. Transfer the chicken to theplate.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon offat from the pot. (Add oil to equal 1tablespoon, if needed.)

Add the garlic, ginger, Sichuanpeppercorns and star anise andcook over medium heat until fra-grant, about 30 seconds. Stir in thesoy sauce, chicken broth, rice wine,

sesame oil and brown sugar, scrap-ing up any browned bits.

Nestle the hard-cooked eggs andchicken, along with any accumulat-ed juices, into the pot and bring to asimmer. Cover, reduce heat tomedium-low, and simmer until thechicken is fully cooked and tender,about 20 minutes for the breasts(160 F to 165 F) or 1 hour for thethighs and drumsticks (170 F to 175F), turning over the chicken andeggs halfway through cooking toensure even coloring from thesauce. (If using both types of chick-en, simmer the thighs and drum-sticks for 40 minutes before addingthe breasts.)

Transfer the chicken and eggs toa serving dish, tent loosely with foiland let rest while finishing thesauce.

Remove and discard the staranise. Skim as much fat as possible

off the surface of the sauce. Pourthe sauce over the chicken and eggsand serve.

Recipe from Cooks Illustrat-eds The Best Chicken Recipes,

Americas Test Kitchen

CALIFORNIAN FILE PHOTO

Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in 1995.

PHOTOCOURTESYOF BETTY J. SMITH

This photo was taken in 1945 of Betty(Donathan) Smith and Merle Haggard infront of Bettys home on El Tejon Street.

An album cover featuring Bonnie Owens andMerle Haggard.

19451995

1964