Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town

One of the songs I sing in the shower is an old Mel Tillis song Kenny Rogers sang ages ago called, Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town.

In the song, a wounded soldier begs his girlfriend, Ruby, to keep her love at home. Whenever the sun begins to drop behind the pines, Ruby lets her passion get the best of her. She slips into a nice dress and heels, paints her lips, curls her tinted hair, and slams the door behind her.

I've always heard that love is fickle. I like that word fickle because it reminds me of the word pickle, and pickles are one of my favorite vegetables. I can eat them right out of the jar. I guess when people say that love is fickle they mean that love is unstable, unpredictable, changeable. The Oxford Dictionary, which is about the size of a small piece of luggage, states that when something is fickle it is treacherous and unsafe.

At first I assumed that Ruby's love was fickle, because the sunset made her do wild and crazy things. But Ruby's love is not nearly as unsafe as her hero's. At the end of the song, her boyfriend who is confined to bed says, "She's leaving now 'cause I just heard the slamming of the door, the way I know I've heard it some 100 times before. If I could move, I'd get my gun and put her in the ground. Please, Ruby, don't take your love to town." And then I like the last line, "Oh Ruby, for God's sake turn around."

Whew! I don't know about you but, if we all let love bring out the worst in us, I'd rather stick to being single.