When I spotted this man sitting on the edge of a fountain in Havana, smoking his cigar down to the point where I couldn’t believe that neither his fingers nor his lips were catching fire, I immediately thought of the lines from the 1964 Roger Miller classic:
“I smoke old stogies I have found,
Short, but not too big around.
I’m a man of means by no means,
King of the Road.”
Now this man is probably not a vagrant and he probably bought the cigar from which he was getting his money’s worth, but the words to the song wouldn’t leave my head. Speaking of “King of the Road,” I certainly stayed in at least one “8 x 12, 4-bit room” of the sort that Roger sang about during my stay in Cuba. Actually, the rooms Roger stayed in, in America during the early 60’s were probably nicer, if not bigger. They probably had windows and stuff… Fortunately, I spend almost no time in a motel room when I’m traveling other than to sleep, shower and change clothes, so I survived admirably.
One last comment about the song…I grew up singing that song, and for many years I sang it with the following mondegreen: “8 x 12, 4-bed room.” It made perfect sense to me as a kid that the poor guy singing the song was so down-and-out that when he was finally able to spring for a motel room, it had four beds in it and he had to share it with three other people.
Now you’re probably wondering how they could fit four beds into an 8′ x 12′ room. Easy: bunk beds! Remember, we’re using kid-logic here…
When I was older I learned that two bits equals a quarter, and therefore Roger was paying $0.50 for his 8′ x 12′ room back in 1964. Which was quite a steal, considering he really got the entire room to himself. I can see why he felt like the “King of the Road!”
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