# Stranger to blue water? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 26, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105 "2023-06-26T01:38:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/21 "2023-06-26T15:42:16Z")
I think it’s most apt to interpret “stranger to blue water” to mean “stranger to salt water”. I see it less about the type of water you’ve seen, than about being in coastal areas and the experiences you gain there. Lots of port cities don’t actually have “blue water”, but there you can encounter a lot of worldly people and knowledge that you wouldn’t in a mountain holler. (Great Lakes ports wouldn’t count as they don’t really lead anywhere more worldly or exotic than whatever port you left). I might even go so far as to say “blue water” is necessarily _farther_ than the coast, because in many places the water is brown, gray, or green as far as you can see from the shore. So in that sense, you haven’t _really_ left home until you’ve boarded a boat (or plane) and gone some distance from shore, preferably to some other shore rather than touching blue water and going home. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/22 "2023-06-26T15:43:10Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > For the last 20 years I’ve lived about 10 feet from Puget Sound. In your living room, your bedroom, or your kitchen? I mean, at that kind of distances, it matters. Is your house built on a stilted pier, or something? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/23 "2023-06-26T15:45:56Z")
I guess I interpret the song completely differently than everyone else. Here’s the verse: > All my memories gather 'round her > Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water > Dark and dusty, painted on the sky > Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye I hear “blue water” as referring to clean water, in contrast to miners who only experience “dark and dusty” water. Or perhaps water like moonshine and teardrops. * * * I grew up in Ohio, and although my family took trips to the Great Lakes and mountains, we never visited the oceans. I didn’t see or touch the ocean until I was 29. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/24 "2023-06-26T15:49:44Z")
I hear both the miner’s daughter and the line under discusson as referring to a personified West Virginia, not a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/25 "2023-06-26T15:56:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In your living room, your bedroom, or your kitchen? I mean, at that kind of distances, it matters. I just looked again, and it’s probably more accurate to say 15 feet. Our house is long and narrow, and the rooms facing the water are very close to the shore line (especially at high tide) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/26 "2023-06-26T16:03:34Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I hear both the miner’s daughter and the line under discusson as referring to a personified West Virginia, not a woman. I think you are absolutely right. I’ve always interpreted ‘her’ as West Virginia; but I thought the miner’s lady was an actual person. _All my memories are of West Virginia._ _The miner’s wife who has never left the hollow,_ _The hazy sky at sundown,_ _The taste of moonshine. I weep to think of these things._ But your interpretation of the entire verse being a personification of the state makes perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/27 "2023-06-26T16:42:03Z")
> All my memories gather 'round her > Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/28 "2023-06-26T16:56:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Are you a ‘stranger to blue water’? Do the Great Lakes count? I grew up in Pennsylvania. We went to the shore (Maryland) every 2 years for family vacation - and the water there is always far more green than blue. So, despite having seen the ocean frequently, I never saw BLUE water until I was about 30 and we visited Hawaii. A few years back, we hosted college-age students from small towns in Quebec for 2-month stays. Two of them had never seen the ocean before (we remedied that). We met someone, when in Colorado decades ago, who had also never been to a coast. All in all, unless you live relatively near an ocean, and you aren’t able / willing to make the journey, it’s not that hard to imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/29 "2023-06-26T17:01:55Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > > What time was it when Denver finished writing _Country Roads_? Almost seven. > > Very good! > > @Elendil_s_Heir, > > “Almost seven” sounds like “almost heaven” Ah, thanks. Ha. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/30 "2023-06-26T17:15:39Z")
I was born in Iowa and grew up in West Virginia. I wouldn’t say I was a complete stranger to blue water, since we did go to the beach a few times over the years, but other than a few rare visits I definitely wasn’t around ocean water much. After college I moved to Baltimore (since WV’s economy was in the dumpster at the time and jobs were a-plenty in MD) so I lived pretty close to Chesapeake Bay for several years. Does the bay count as blue water? Maybe not since it’s a bay. And definitely not if we’re using the Navy definition. When Mrs. Geek and I got married, instead of hiring a limo, we left by boat and went around the bay for a bit. About 25 years ago we moved up in PA (near Gettysburg). Mrs. Geek and the Geeklings go to the beach every now and then, anywhere from Ocean City up to Rehoboth Beach, but I’m not much of a beach person so it has been probably a decade or so since I have seen the ocean. The only time I have ever seen blue water according to the Navy definition is when I was in a boat crossing the English channel. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/31 "2023-06-26T17:16:01Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > Grew up in western South Dakota, have lived in northeast Wyoming now for 20+ years… At this point, I’m practically a stranger to “water”. This made me LOL. I’ve never lived more than 10 miles from the ocean (Pacific) and sometimes a lot closer than that. I’m not an inland kind of person. I remember driving Sunset Blvd down to the ocean when I was in school. Sunset ran just north of the UCLA campus, so it was easy to just swoop and swerve down to the ocean. Once in high school, a friend and I ditched school and went to Malibu beach. We ran into a guy who was from Czechoslovakia (as it was then) shortly after the Velvet Revolution. He wanted to see the ocean, and he didn’t want to go home. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/32 "2023-06-26T17:24:25Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > After college I moved to Baltimore (since WV’s economy was in the dumpster at the time and jobs were a-plenty in MD) so I lived pretty close to Chesapeake Bay for several years. Does the bay count as blue water? Maybe not since it’s a bay. And definitely not if we’re using the Navy definition. Coincidentally, Danoff and Nivert (neither of whom are from West Virginia) were in the Baltimore area when they came up with the idea for the song. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home,_Country_Roads): > [@](#): > > Inspiration for the title line had come while Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff, who were married, were driving along [Clopper Road](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Route_117) in [Montgomery County, Maryland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_County,_Maryland) to a gathering of Nivert’s family in [Gaithersburg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaithersburg,_Maryland), with Nivert behind the wheel while Danoff played his guitar. “I just started thinking, country roads, I started thinking of me growing up in western [New England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England) and going on all these small roads,” Danoff said. “It didn’t have anything to do with Maryland or anyplace.”[ ---
**Author:** ![Wisest\_Novel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wisest_novel/32/13329_2.png) [@Wisest\_Novel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wisest_Novel)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/33 "2023-06-26T19:54:41Z")
You’re not the only one. I also interpreted the phrase as referring to clean water, given its juxtaposition to the mining industry, which is not known for its devotion to ecological protection. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/34 "2023-06-26T20:26:15Z")
I grew up a couple of miles from the Irish sea in Cumbria; and I now live half an hour’s drive from the south coast of England. However… For a while I lived (depending whether you go for tidal river, estuary, or open sea) about 65 miles from the sea. So what? Well, the furthest you can get from the sea in Britain is about 70 miles - so 65 is a pretty good effort. j ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/35 "2023-06-26T20:26:43Z")
I was under the impression that “blue water” referred to fresh water as opposed to oceans, but I see from other comments that this is wrong or at least far from universal. Anyway, I guess my own experience is definitely strongly linked to the Great Lakes and not at all to oceans. Ocean coastal areas, incidentally, are unsurprisingly where a huge proportion of the world’s population lives. According to the UN, around 40% of the world population lives within 100 km of the ocean. I would have thought it would be even higher. As for me, my only link to the ocean is that I was born in the area of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which famously links the Atlantic to the Great Lakes. I then seemed to have migrated upstream, and have lived my entire life within a short distance of one or another of the Great Lakes. Funny, I never really thought of my life in hydrological terms, but maybe I should get around more! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/36 "2023-06-26T21:09:09Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > According to the UN, around 40% of the world population lives within 100 km of the ocean. For many years, I’ve lived 99.779 kilometers from the ocean. Before that, mostly closer. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/37 "2023-06-26T21:24:32Z")
I was in historic Harpers Ferry, WV a few years ago, and a National Park Service ranger pointed out a riverside area where local lore had it that Denver had worked on the song. He immediately said he doubted it, though. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/38 "2023-06-26T22:32:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The song was primarily written by husband-and-wife songwriting team Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert … Themselves being one half of the one-hit wonder _Starland Vocal Band_ whose claim to fame was the … uniquely memorable … _Afternoon Delight_. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve always interpreted ‘her’ as West Virginia; but I thought the miner’s lady was an actual person. > > _All my memories are of West Virginia._ > _The miner’s wife who has never left the hollow,_ > _The hazy sky at sundown,_ > _The taste of moonshine. I weep to think of these things._ > > But your interpretation of the entire verse being a personification of the state makes perfect sense. I really like your gloss there @Johnny_L.A. I’d never really dug into the lyrics to parse the direct from the metaphoric. The whole thing has always been a gauzy soft-focus paean to … something or other rural and pretty and simple. And somehow uniquely American Gothic. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/39 "2023-06-26T23:15:49Z")
Yeah, this was always my interpretation, too. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105/40 "2023-06-27T03:59:31Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > [@InternetLegend](#): > > > > there was a coup and a lot of unrest, > > Not to mention the rat monkeys. Not to _mention_ the rat monkeys! Which I’m assuming were in the ocean, since everything else horrible was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-to-blue-water/986105.md?page=3)