The storyline in "Bringing Mary home" is - in different versions - much older than "The Twilight Zone". Stories with approximately the same content were already going round before the beginning of the previous century - before 1900 that is. This version of a girl from a car wreck was put to words in the form of a poem and also to music by someone around the end of the fifties and sent to Bill Clifton. As he told in several of his appearances throughout the world, he liked the poem very much, but did not like the melody that came with it. That is why he asked John Duffy to write a new melody for it. Bill recorded the song in 1965 together with a lot of others in order to have enough material 'on stock' foe a couple of new albums to be released while he was travelling outside the USA. John Duffy was permitted to also record the song with the 'Gents' and that recording was released way before Bill Clifton's version was. That is why the version of the Country Gentlemen became more popular than Bill's, although the Gents recorded it in 1971, six years later than Bill did.

Peculiar thing is, that the wellknown Gents-version is missing something like a complete verse. When Bill Clifton asked John Duffy why they did not do that part, John replied that they 'just must have forgot it'.

Here is the complete poem in its original form:

Bringing Mary home - Biil Clifton's version (1965)

I was driving down a lonely road, on a dark and stormy night

When a little girl by the roadside showed up in my head lights

I stopped and she got inside and in a shaky tone

She said my name is Mary, please won't you take me home

She must have been so frightened, all alone there in the night

There was something strange about her, 'cause her face was restly white

She sat so pale and quite in the back seat all alone

I never will forget tha night I took Mary home

I pulled into the driveway, where she told me to go

Got out to help her from the car and opened up the door

But I just could not believe my eyes, the back seat it was bare

I looked all around the car, but Mary wasn't there

A light shone from the porch, someone opened up the door

And as I walked towards the house I wondered more and more

What happened to that little girl so frightened and forlorn

Could I have just been dreaming bringing Mary home

I walked up to the lady who was standing in the door

And asked about the little girl that I was looking for

She gently smiled and with her hand she brushed a tear away

And said it sure was nice of you to go out of your way

But thirteen years ago today, in a wreck just down the road

Our darling Mary lost her life and we miss her so

O thank you for your trouble and the kindness you have shown

You're the 13th one who's been here bringing Mary home

Kind regards,

Fokke de Jong

Drachten, Frysl‰n