A Sleeping City Sidewalk
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (86575)
United States
September 17, 2017 11:35am CST
I woke up this morning, not too early but not at 9:30 the way I was when I was off work. That means my body is readjusting to getting up early, which is good news for the alarm clocks (they won't be beaten to a pulp as much 
). I needed to wash my coat (September and October in Kentucky can be unmercifully hot, or it can snow on Halloween!) so I collected my dirty clothes and went to the laundromat.
While the clothes were washing I took a walk around the block. And, as I was walking, the lyrics of the classic Kris Kristofferson tune "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" came to mind.
What a brilliant songwriter Kristofferson is. The details in that song are phenomenal: "I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt," and the appropriate-given-that-I-was-at-the-laundromat line, "I fumbled in my closet through my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt."
But the thing that came to mind is the closing line of the chorus: "There's nothing short of dying that's half as lonesome as the sound of a sleeping city sidewalk and Sunday morning comin' down."
It is amazing how strangely different things sound on Sunday morning. We're long past the "Sunday closing laws" that kept businesses shuttered on Sunday, but things are still not as "busy" as they are on the other days of the week. As I walked around the block the traffic noises were minimal, and the "beep" of the crossing signal was far more audible from a distance than it would be with the bustle of people and cars around.
It isn't that the area was deserted. No, there were people walking and cars (and bikes) passing. But that quietness -- that strange notion of "a sleeping city sidewalk" on Sunday morning -- that Kristofferson wrote rang so true.
Here's the song:
). I needed to wash my coat (September and October in Kentucky can be unmercifully hot, or it can snow on Halloween!) so I collected my dirty clothes and went to the laundromat.
While the clothes were washing I took a walk around the block. And, as I was walking, the lyrics of the classic Kris Kristofferson tune "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" came to mind.
What a brilliant songwriter Kristofferson is. The details in that song are phenomenal: "I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt," and the appropriate-given-that-I-was-at-the-laundromat line, "I fumbled in my closet through my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt."
But the thing that came to mind is the closing line of the chorus: "There's nothing short of dying that's half as lonesome as the sound of a sleeping city sidewalk and Sunday morning comin' down."
It is amazing how strangely different things sound on Sunday morning. We're long past the "Sunday closing laws" that kept businesses shuttered on Sunday, but things are still not as "busy" as they are on the other days of the week. As I walked around the block the traffic noises were minimal, and the "beep" of the crossing signal was far more audible from a distance than it would be with the bustle of people and cars around.
It isn't that the area was deserted. No, there were people walking and cars (and bikes) passing. But that quietness -- that strange notion of "a sleeping city sidewalk" on Sunday morning -- that Kristofferson wrote rang so true.
Here's the song:
7 people like this
6 responses
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
17 Sep 17
I love that quiet on Sunday!
I didn´t know Kris wrote this..what a great writer he is!
Hope you have a good rest of the day Four Walls.
Thanks for sharing this.
5 people like this
@allen0187 (59648)
• Philippines
18 Sep 17
Sunday's like that are hard to come by here in Manila. The city is always hustling and bustling!
3 people like this
@FourWalls (86575)
• United States
18 Sep 17
When I was in New York City we left the club about 4 in the morning, and I was amazed at how relatively quiet the streets were at that hour of the morning on a Sunday. Shattered my stereotype, as did the fact that a New Yorker sitting next to me at the diner started a conversation with me at breakfast.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (97912)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Sep 17
My every days here in the suburbs of Riga are quiet and I hardly see anyone including my neighbors. If my neighbor dogs don't bark you would think I was the only one in this world. But thanks for this ong one of my favorites. It made me smile to be reminded of my young days in NYC. There on Sundays in my neighborhood things were quiet too but people were around. I remember after some really late Saturday nights walking in the sunshine with this song on my mind and no way to hold my head that didn't hurt 
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43567)
• Denver, Colorado
18 Sep 17
Even though Kristofferson wrote it and also performed it, it's my favorite Johnny Cash tune.
2 people like this
