Wow!  I'm really impressed with those lyrics Jim and looking forward to hearing the song. 

DE     

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Beamer, I had planned on also downloading my "Hell and High Water" CD to soundcloud (It has my "Small Medium at Large" song on it that you referred to), but apparently I not only gave away all the copies I had to friends, I also gave away the  CD I used as the master.    When I get the time I'll try to record those songs again.     

The upperclassmen in the high school I attended would often hang a nickname on incoming freshmen. Many times it was the opposite of their personality or physical characteristics  (someone who had straight hair would be called "Curly",  or a skinny kid might be called "Fats"). I was a pretty studious, honor-roll student through 8 grades. In my freshman year a magazine in the school library contained an article about the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang and mentioned that the leader of one chapter was called "Dirty Ed', so my nickname was born. Soon everyone called me Ed or DE. After I got out of high school there were folks in my home town who never knew my name was actually Ken because all my friends called me Ed.  Later, when I got into whitewater kayaking "Dirty Ed" then became my "river" name. I've often been told by friends that while discussing river running, stream fishing or kayaking with someone, they'll mention Ken and the other person doesn't know who they're talking about unless they use the name Dirty Ed. Its been my nickname for 56 years.      

Thanks Peatle. For years I've insisted in only performing my songs "live" around riverside campfires or doing an occasional gig, but after being isolated for 7 months due to the COVID pandemic and not being able to play music with my friends, I've downloaded 25 of my old songs on soundcloud. Ten were played solo and recorded in my bedroom (CD I called "Lookin' Back") and 15 were done in a friend's backyard "potting shed/studio" (CD called "New Toons") with the help of my friends Jeff Hartley (bass, lead, back-up vocals) and John Victor (harmonica).  It's a more polished version of my songs. I hope to post links to several of the songs over the next few months.

The one thing I've insisted is that my voice be recorded "naturally", without any electronic "help", as the main reason I make CDs is so my grandchildren and hopefully someday great-children will be able to hear their grandpa's voice. My grandparents were all dead before I was born and although I have pictures of them I have no idea how their voices sounded.

I hope that my songs will get some honest criticism and evaluation from Chordie members. For several years I hung out with a group of NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) songwriters. At our meetings we would play/present our newest songs to be critiqued by the group. At first it was hard to hear what I thought was a good song had several flaws, Just saying "I like or don't like the song" was never allowed, the critique had to be specific and each person making  comments had to tell why they thought the song or a part of the song didn't work or what sections were strong. As song writers have varying views about song content and structure, there were sometimes a lot of different opinions.  Sometimes it required re-writing the song and bringing it back several times.  In any case I developed a thick skin when it comes to others commenting on my songs so I won't feel offended if someone is critical.  I only ask that the comments be about the song itself, not the performance.      

Welcome aradii! Folks on this site are very helpful and we also look forward to your input.     

Thanks Jim. My idea was to write a song for Thanksgiving as there are a ton of Christmas songs but Thanksgiving songs are rare.  At that time there was daily news about the US  "war on terror" and I couldn't help but think what it must be like for the young men who would not be with their families during the holidays so the song morphed into something different than I originally intended.  I imagined I was one of the young soldiers writing about missing his folks back home and just added a little "background" story of why he enlisted.

It's a pretty simple chord structure, Key of D with some hammer-ons and pull-offs, mostly on the D chord.

Great lyrics ! Interesting that the chorus is 8 lines and verses only 4 lines. After reading the lyrics I played it using your chord progression, but not knowing the melody made it a little hard to fit the words of the lyrics in smoothly.  I'm looking forward to hearing your version.     

Thanks Scotty.  "Covid Killed my Band" sounds like the title of a song you should write      

Like most of you I have different "go-to" guitars for different situations. My Martin 000-16SRGT is what I usually play when I'm performing somewhere. The last time I played was on March 1 when I played a gig at a local winery. The next week the COVID-19 pandemic hit and my wife and I went into the "social distancing" mode and for some reason I lost interest in playing. For 7 months I never picked up any of my guitars or strummed a single chord. Then three weeks ago I stopped by my local music store. The owner had changed the store location and I wanted to see his new shop. A Teton parlor that was hanging on the wall caught my eye (STP180NT, 12-fret, slot-head, ebony body with sitka top). I picked it up, strummed it a few times and the sound was as appealing to my ears as its looks was to my eyes. I brought it home and have been playing it at least two hours a day for the last three weeks. I've even got the callouses back on my fingertips.  It is now become my "go-to" for at-home playing/song writing.     

Well, maybe you're right, my brain could be worse.