How old would Honey be?

I’m listening to an oldies radio station when Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey”, a 1968 chart-topper in which a sadist relates the horrific tale of his dysfunctional marriage and his wife’s tragic death, starts playing.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s a synopsis: Cruel husband laughs at wife, “Honey,” for planting a twig in the yard. He laughs again when she slips and almost splits her head open while running out to brush snow from the twig, which has miraculously taken root. Calling her simple-minded (“kinda dumb and kinda smart”), he buys Honey a puppy, but then complains when the dog keeps him awake on Christmas Eve. Not surprisingly, he often finds Honey crying “needlessly.” She claims she’s crying because of some sappy TV movie but anyone can see it's because she’s trapped in an abusive marriage. She wrecks the car (probably while trying to get away) and is terrified he will erupt but, uncharacteristically, he lets it go. (Poor Honey never knows from one day to the next how the monster she married will react.) One day he comes home “unexpectedly” and finds her weeping yet again and with good reason. She’s dying, but he makes no effort to comfort her.

Now, here comes the most disturbing part:

“One day when I was not at home,

When she was there and all alone,

The angels came.

Now all I have is (sic) memories ….”

Where shall I begin?

For starters, why wasn’t Honey in a hospital or hospice?

Why would anyone leave a terminal patient at home and go out? Where’d he go? To Walgreen’s for drugs to relieve her suffering? To the corner bar to watch a game with his buddies? To a Nixon campaign rally? (Remember, this was 1968.) To work? Surely his employer would have understood if he called and said, “Look, I’m not coming in today. Honey’s dying.”

If he had to be gone, why didn’t he at least call someone to be with her at the end – a nurse or minister perhaps? And where was Honey’s family? Had he cut her off from all contact? I can’t imagine her parents or siblings wouldn’t have come if he had told them how ill she was.

Who, exactly, was Goldsboro referring to when he sang, “the angels came?”  The Guardian Angels?  The California Angels infield? The Hells Angels, bringing chains to beat her and put her out of her misery once and for all?

And what did he do when he arrived home and found “the angels came?” Cradle her lifeless body in his arms and weep? Call 9-1-1?  Plop down in front of the TV to watch Gomer Pyle USMC? Maybe she wasn't dead yet -- he's not a doctor, he's a performer -- and he could have saved her, but he doesn't think it's important enough to tell us.

What’s more disturbing than the song itself is why, 44 years ago when it was released, people didn’t demand that Goldsboro be jailed for spousal abuse. Instead, they went out and bought the record, making him rich, which encouraged him to record another maudlin song about an ill-fated marriage, “The Autumn of My Life.”

Realistically, I guess people didn’t know better back then. There was no Dr. Phil telling women how to get out of abusive relationships.

It’s a shame, a crying shame, because Honey would be alive today had she lived in more enlightened times and Goldsboro, who makes Drew Peterson look like "Husband of the Year," would be in jail where he belongs.