Smooth as Tennessee Whiskey

When I was five years old, my daddy bought a white boat (I don't recall the maker), it was a ski boat. I remember vaguely the day I saw it. When I was five, daddy handed me a life jacket, and I learned how to swim. But when I was 8 years old, I recall (if it was just yesterday), the day he bought a brand new Glassport @ Marine Myers in my hometown, Corbin, KY. I remember standing on the boat trailer and looking into a beautiful interior of red and gray that matched the exterior of the water machine. It was the colors that I knew, and later grew to love...Corbin Redhound red. As I toured that boat...admired it with daddy, I had no idea what memories that we would make from that moment on. The thought of those times, to this day...are sacred. From the time I saw it, I loved it...adored it, (almost as much as I have adored him), on that hill that led to our home, 11 Skylark Drive.
Daddy and I took in out on Laurel Lake to run it on the water that same night (mother didn't join us,she didn't care for the lake). It was a picturesque evening, and the sun was brilliantly reflecting off of the most beautiful body of water I'd ever seen...the only current, was the one we carved in the water.
Daddy had brought a cassette tape with us, one that @ that the time I didn't appreciate, but have grown to love. George Jones, from the album, I Am What I Am. That eve, we listened to George, as he sang to us...If Drinking Don't Kill Me, Good Hearted Woman (w/ Waylon and Willie), I'm Not Ready Yet, but, one stood out, more than all the rest of the tracks..."He said I"ll love you, til I die"... of course it continued... playing out, He Stopped Loving Her Today.
I have never asked daddy if he remembers our first venture in/on the brand new boat, but its a venture that is chiseled in my mind. I'll love Maurice Ronald O'Connell til I die, not for that day...but everyday before that day and since. He has loved me, through it all...perhaps, I should underline it in red... single, I love you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggkyQ8RqOvc