Big Ole Chedo Lino

So you know how you can hear the lyrics of a song wrong?

And then, even after you know the right lyrics, even after learning that your version is completely inane, you still have a hard time letting go of it? That's just how it is, and that's that?

Or maybe this doesn't happen to you.

See, last night Nick said I'd ruined this one particular song for him for good. This song by the Steve Miller Band, called Jet Air Liner. Big old jet airliner, don't carry me too far away. Big old jet airliner, 'cause it's here that I've got to stay.

Or, in my world, the Big Ole Chedo Lino song.

You know, Big Ole Chedo Lino, don't carry me too far away. Big Ole Chedo Lino...

It's a song I think I heard for the first time in high school. And probably didn't learn the correct lyrics until at least a decade later. It was most likely Maude who corrected me, since there are so few people I sing with.

Chedo Lino, in my mind, was roughly the size of Paul Bunyan. Enormous. Not dangerous, just enormous. Fully capable of carrying you too far away. He'd probably carry you back to Bemidji, in fact.

See, I grew up spending my summers in Minnesota and North Dakota. Driving past gigantor Paul Bunyan and his trusty Babe the Blue Ox. Chedo Lino, for me, he wasn't such a stretch.

I'm not saying I'm propagating this version. It's more that it's very hard to let go.