All words and music ©1988 by John Speckine
Renewed: ©2003, ©2016, ©2025
I've decided to keep this song "unplugged".
Lyrics below.
BACK STORY (get a sandwich):
When I got to Greece on the 6th of May, 1985, I was married. When I left Greece on the 6th of May, 1988, I was not.
When the military charter landed in Philadelphia, both myself and a guy I knew had to go to Bayonne, NJ to pick up cars we'd had shipped in. Being a Friday, we rented a car and hustled to Bayonne so we could hit the road home that night. Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time and had to spend the weekend at a motel.
Neither of us had been in the states for three years and since we had to stay in Bayonne (we could see the Statue of Liberty from our room), we figured we might as well take in a ball game. Neither of us had seen one of those in three years either. So we checked to see who the Yankees were playing and who the Mets were playing, and we'd take a taxi to the ballpark.
As it turned out, both teams were on the road. Figures.
So, Monday morning, the 9th of May, before the port opened so we could get our cars, we stopped at a Burger King (we didn't have THAT for three years either) to get a breakfast sandwich.
In front of me was a young lady in her USAF uniform. She and I started a conversation and found out we were both from Michigan - and then it gets a little weird.
The girl to whom I was married when I went to Greece was from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Now as I get home from Greece, I meet a girl who is from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. But not the same town. THAT would have been TOO weird.
KISMIT? I thought: Maybe.
This girl's name was Carol (and probably still is). We talked until she had to leave to catch her flight to Ramstein, West Germany and her new base, and I had to get to the port to get my car and start the drive back to Michigan.
Upshot: We promised to stay in touch. I gave her my address and she gave me hers in Germany. We wrote religiously for several months, sending each other pictures and every once in a while calling each other at work, until one day she wrote me saying she'd met a guy there at Ramstein and they were getting pretty serious.
That was that.
Anyway, I wrote this song shortly after getting to my new base, Offutt AFB, Nebraska, and sent her a tape of it. She called me crying because she liked it so much. A couple of months later, I got that letter. Story of my life.
LYRICS:
Monday morning, the 9th of May
In New York City you came my way
We stayed together 'til time had come
For me to leave you and go back home
I didn't want to say goodbye
But we both had a place to go
I'd have a long day on the road
And you would spend the day up in the sky
You send me letters and pictures too
Sometimes I call you, but I'm still blue
I wanna have you with me every night
And give you my love for all my life
You've made my heart feel so alive
I thought that it had passed away
But on that sunny 9th of May
You came and put love back into my life
I know I can't be with you, but honey, don't you fret
Nobody could replace you because I can't forget
The girl I fell in love with; the girl I met that day
Back in New York City on the 9th of May
In New York City on the 9th of May
All words and music ©1988 by John Speckine
