Cal Oroville

Cal Oroville sat on a bridge
And looked at the rocks below
At 92, he’d had enough
And knew it was time to go.

Some men are born to kill
Some men are born to die
Cal had done his very best
To shut his landlord’s eyes.


He tried to gut that bastard Lou
With a serrated knife,
But Cal was weakened from cancer
That squeezed his lungs of life.

Cal got the knife into Lou’s gut
And pushed as hard as he could.
Lou’s fat gut absorbed the cut
And blood gushed where he stood.


Like every good American,
Cal got his day in court.
And Lou came to testify
A bandage on his gut.

The jury found him guilty
And sent him to Mesa Jail.
Cal got a number for his name
And shoved inside a cell.


The other convicts loved Old Cal,
But not the way you think.
They called him Pops and Cutter Cal
And snuck him booze to drink.

And when they dealt out the cards,
They let Cal cut the deck.
They let him watch his favorite show
Old reruns of Star Trek.


Nobody ever visited him,
He had no living kin.
That didn’t really bother Cal
For he had found new friends.

He figured that he’d end his days
Inside of Mesa Jail.
His days crawled on with cancer,
His breathing became frail.


Judge Marcos said his time was up
After four hundred days,
And Cal could now go on home
But he loved the jailhouse ways.

He asked the Judge to change his mind
Or he’d try suicide
The Judge unlocked the door
And made Cal step outside.

His only friends were all locked up
He had no family
He knew he’d never get a job
He was too elderly

At 92, he’d had enough
And knew it was time to go
Cal Oroville jumped off that bridge
And hit the rocks below.

12.31.09
lyrics circa 2003
STE-187