On The Border

Lyrics

I just bumped into Peter this morning You know, Uncle Louis' son And he greeted me cowboy style Ja, with his hand cocked like a gun You know, he was in the butchery We were buying boerewors and chops And he was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of short pants And those blue rubber flip-flops And his brother was with him In his blue jeans and a gaudy tropical print You know, I think he was trying to hit out in civvy street Ja, after doing his army stint He told me that he'd just spent six months on the border But that for him it felt more like six years And that they'd passed the time with jokes and with poker And counted the days but not the beers Well I had a friend called Johnny And his surname was Lategan And Johnny and I were in the army together Ja, in the good old days man, back in 1971 But you know Johnny, he was a funny kind of guy He was either very quiet, or shooting off his mouth And then one weekend, he AWOL'd with a Bedford Ja, and he hit the N1 heading south But ole Johnny, he wrapped that truck around a tikkie-box And he ended up in DB for about ten weeks And I tell you, they cooled him down to zero there Because when Johnny came out, yeah, he wouldn't speak So you know, maybe that's where it happened Perhaps he just was that way Well, they could have pushed him a little too far But I mean, who am I to say? But it was, it was on the border that it happened And nobody knows quite where But I heard about old- old Johnny Lategan Ja, from a buddy of mine who was there And you know, it was hard, it was hard to believe his story And it certainly wasn't the official line I mean, anyway, that kind of thing is just- it's difficult to swallow, man Because Johnny was such a good friend of mine But he told me that- that Johnny took his own life And he left a little note that said 'Cheers!' And the five other troopies on patrol with him Well he put a bullet between their ears So when I bumped into Peter this morning You know, he reminded me of Johnny Lategan Because Johnny always used to greet you Ja, with his hand cocked like a gun