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about

On a warm night last week, standing under the stars in the small town of Utica, NE, Maggie told me a story of Ida Mae Hersch (no relation that I know of). In Stromsberg, she worked at the Rentameyer Cafe. She was a handsome woman and full of life, according to Maggie, though she never married. I imagined her as a dreamer, and decided to make up a song using her beautiful name. Maggie didn't tell me enough about her so I filled in the rest on my own. A song about the strength to seek out what your heart is telling you to do.

lyrics

Number Twelve, March 22nd, 2012

Ida Mae

Ida Mae worked the day shift
At the old cafe in town
She loved to walk the streets
You never saw her sitting down
She didn't go to the dance hall
Or the tavern on the square
But when the moon was bright on the riverbank
You could see her walking there

They say she fell in love
When she was just a girl
With a handsome man who promised
To take her around the world
But he never came back
Some say he died in the war
Ida Mae put away her dreams once more

CHORUS:
Oh Ida Mae
Your love will come someday
Steal you away
From this old cafe
Oh Ida Mae
Your love will come someday
Take you away
Ida Mae

So she took the waitress job
At the Rentameyer Cafe
She was the prettiest woman in town
You could hear the diners say
By and by she buried her Mother at the lutheran church
But she never buried her dream of seeing the world

In the window of the cafe
After the lunch tables were clean
You could see her reading her books
And her travel magazines
Many men asked her out
She said yes to a few
But it was her dreams
She was married to

CHORUS

The snow will come and go
And the sky will turn to blue
The seasons change us all
And Ida Mae too
She didn't say goodbye
Just packed her bags alone
On the morning bus
With the little that she owned

Some say she went to the city
To live somewhere uptown
Some say she sailed the ocean
To see the European crowns
But I like to believe
She found her love at last
Not some handsome stranger
But the woman she came to know
Not some mystery man
But the woman inside who had the strength to go

CHORUS

credits

from 52 Songs in 52 Weeks: 2012, released July 15, 2013

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James Hersch Minneapolis, Minnesota

I live on this piece of prairie. I'm passionate and dedicated to writing songs in hopes of singing them for people. I don't think I could continue without both ends of that process. Create then hope. It's here I write songs, and here I wait to sing them for others. ... more

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