Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow) notes:
I had a job at 15 working at an Episcopal Church as
a janitor. I was a pew dustin', cross polishin', lawn mowin', snow shovelin' son
of a gun. Early one Sunday morning, I was walking through the alley by the
church to shovel snow before the congregation arrived. All that's out on the
streets at that time on Sunday mornings are paperboys, altar boys and guys like
me. Turns out one of the altar boys on his way to the Catholic church was
walking down the train tracks. God only knows where his mind was, but a local
commuter train come from behind and they had to put him in bushel baskets - what
was left. I saw a group of mothers standing near the accident, not knowing whose
boys it was. When they finally identified the boy, the mother broke down, and
the other mothers consoled her with a great sense of relief. This story is
coupled with a shattered romance, juxtaposed with a loss of innocence: "My
heart's in the ice house/Come hill or come valley."
- this is from Clay Eals" excellent biography of Steve Goodman - "Facing the Music" (p.511)a
"
Prine said he chose the word "orange" because he liked the colors of autumn and Halloween, and he ate oranges "by the dozen" as a child. "It just came up as somethin' that's really sweet and delicate and gettin' bruised just by bein' mishandled," he says. In short, the orange symbolized the human heart."