Pack Out Day

This song was written on the way home from Pennsic 47. I had a really good time at War that year, which involved my stretching a bit and doing more things that weren’t necessarily Bardic. (No, I still didn’t actually drink, but since the vast majority of adults I hung out with did, it’s still an indelible part of my experience of the War.) It was performed for the first time at my Pennsic 48 concert. (A song about leaving Pennsic can bring up feelings in an audience not to be evoked lightly.)

Pack Out Day

© 2018 words & music by Eric Schrager

I’ve been deep in a dream but I’m covered in steam
‘Cause my tent is beginning to bake
Now I’m aching and sore like I’ve been through the war
And it hits me at once as I wake

I’ve spent two weeks on enchanted ground
That will vanish now just like Brigadoon
It’s the event that I planned for all year
And now once again it’s over too soon…

CHORUS
It’s pack out day, and it hurts me to say
I’m so sad to be going, I’m not ready yet
It’s pack out day, and when I drive away
What I’m leaving behind I would hate to forget

Now I’m working nonstop as I grab the car top
That we’ll stuff on the roof with our gear
As it opens I freeze—Oh my God, it’s the keys
We’ve been looking for since we got here

Our days were classes and throwing knives,
We made new best friends and we rode on watch
Our nights were flirting and dancing and song
In a cloud of mead and porter and Scotch (CH)

We’re still loading our crap and we try not to snap
At each other with each passing hour
Soon it’s hugs and goodbyes and a new distant prize
As we dream of A/C and a shower

We packed a year of adventures in
Fourteen days and nights, and I’m feeling blessed
I know that some years are better than others
But this year’s war was one of the best…

CHORUS
It’s pack out day, and I’m happy to say
That I’m sad to be going, but I’m ready now
It’s pack out day, and as I drive away
What I’m leaving behind will come with me somehow

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