Animal Wednesday: Uncle Bunny and Janis Joplin

It's me, Emily! This week I am telling a family story and using my best grammar and extra vocabulary. Cheap kj is paying me $ 10 this time because this is a present for Debra Kay, who is having surgery and by some unbelievable coincidence wanted to hear about me and Janis Joplin. How she knew my Uncle Bunny knew Janis Joplin is anybody's guess. Anyway, here's the story. kj and I hope you like it Debra Kay.

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Oh, one more thing. My mother insisted I use the word 'fudge' instead of the F-word, but I just couldn't do it. Even I knew that would be wrong wrong. Hopefully she won't read this. But maybe you should know even though I'm a little rabbit, there are some F swears in here. kj says ms. renee will like that. Maybe even Marianne will like that. I'm not really sure.

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First of all, I am not impressed with people who scream too loud, even though I do sometimes when I am very mad or very sad. But have you ever heard Janis Joplin? Because she screams so loud it could hurt your ears except it doesn’t because she sings while she screams and I like it because you know she is not going to let herself get pushed around and I like that because it’s better to protect yourself than to cry or whine about it. Right? I think rabbits and people would agree on that.
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Anyway, my mother told me that Janis Joplin came to Bunnyville to meet my uncle Bunny McGee in 1969. It is a little known fact that the song that she sang about Bobby Mcgee was really about Bunny Mcgee, who was named after Bunny’s grandfather, BeeBop Bunny McGee II, who had Bunnyville named after him because he had a huge garden and gave away free carrots and lettuce if you were nice to him.
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Anyway, one day Janis Joplin was in Midland Texas and she was throwing rocks at the side of a building and screaming her head off. Bunny happened to be hopping by and noticed this plump frumpy woman with wild hair snarling her words and waving her hands all over the place and he stopped and asked her why she was screaming and snarling and she told him to fuck off.
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My mother likes to tell the part about Uncle Bunny that he loved loved loved people who swore and spit. I can’t tell you why except my mother thinks he wanted to be John Bunny Wayne when he was a little rabbit, so he grew up with a chip on his shoulder and figured he could have public temper tantrums as long as the rabbits and people around him weren’t too sensitive or wimpy about it. So when Bunny heard Janis Joplin screaming, he liked her right away.
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“The son of a bitch left me” she hollered. She did not seem to notice that Bunny McGee was a rabbit and she proceeded say ‘fuck this’ and ‘fuck that’ until she looked again at Bunny and said, “Who the fuck are you?”
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Uncle Bunny, who was not yet a grown rabbit, reached into his man pouch and took out twelve jellybeans and a half a carrot. “Here,” he said. “You are obviously a mess so you might do better with some jellybeans. I don’t know about the carrot.” Janice Joplin laughed so hard she doubled over. “Keep your fucking carrot,” she said, “but gimme those jelly beans.”
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That is how Janis and my Uncle Bunny became friends. She told him he was the only rabbit she liked and for Christmas she sent him 25 pounds of jellybeans and seven pounds of radishes. Uncle Bunny’s mother was not happy about the jellybeans but by then Janis Joplin was famous and she didn't dare seem ungrateful.
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Unbeknownst to anyone, Janis Joplin arrived in Bunnyville for Uncle Bunny’s 16th birthday party. My mother said she looked like hell and could barely stand up straight, but she stood on the purple rock in the middle of the playground and sang “Me and Bunny McGee.” She apologized to Bunny that this guy Kris Kristofferson used the wrong last name but when she sang the song, she did it the right way:
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Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train

And I's feeling nearly as faded as my jeans.

Bunny thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,

It rode us all the way to New Orleans.

I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandanna,

I was playing soft while Bunny sang the blues.

Windshield wipers slapping time,

I was holding Bunny's hand in mine,

We sang every song that driver knew.

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Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose,

Nothing don't mean nothing honey if it ain't free, now now.

And feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,

You know feeling good was good enough for me,

Good enough for me and my Bunny McGee.

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From the Kentucky coal mines to the California sun,

Hey, Bunny shared the secrets of my soul.

Through all kinds of weather, through everything we done,

Hey Bunny baby? kept me from the cold.

One day up near Salinas,I let him slip away,

He's looking for that home and I hope he finds it,

But I'd trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday

To be holding Bunny's body next to mine.

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Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,

Nothing, that's all that Bunny left me, yeah,

But feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,

Hey, feeling good was good enough for me, hmm hmm,

Good enough for me and my Bunny McGee.

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La la la, la la la la, la la la, la la la la

La la la la la Bunny McGee.

La la la la la, la la la la la

La la la la la, Bunny McGee, la.

La La la, la la la la la la,

La La la la la la la la la,

ain`t no bumb on my Bunny McGee yeah.

Na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na na na na

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Hey now Bunny now, Bunny McGee, yeah.

Lord, I'm calling my lover, calling my man,

I said I'm calling my lover just the best I can,
C'mon, hey now Bunny yeah, hey now Bunny McGee, yeah,

Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lord

Hey, hey, hey, Bunny McGee, Lord!Yeah! Whew!

Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy LordHey, hey, hey, Bunny McGee.
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Before she left Bunnyville, Janis Joplin gave Bunny a picture of herself . Bunny hung it in his rabbit hole bedroom and it is still there. Both Uncle Bunny and my mother think that I am a lot like Janis Joplin because I like to scream and snarl if I have to. Plus it’s not my fault if people don’t like me or understand me and Uncle Bunny said his friend Janis was the same way.
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Now, truly, don’t you think I earned the $ 10 kj paid me to make Debra Kay smile? Maybe she should have even paid me $ 15.00.
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Yours truly,

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Emily Rabbit