well it has been awhile since I posted anything this is one that has been in the works for awhile and still may make some changes but any way here is my latest attempt at song writing. this is pretty much the life story of my old man. I think one of my biggest regrets in life is that he never heard me play he passed while I was just learning guitar. wow a little over thirty years since cancer took him seems like only yesterday. any way hope you like it and maybe it brings back a memory of someone you miss.
Am C G A
C G Am
with a sway back horse and a mule named jack
C G Am
he headed to the gin by the rail road tracks
with a cotton bail that made his fingers bleed
it was deep east Texas 1943
the hard times were over or so they said
but they never worked the fields just to make their bread
the times were tough just like before
he joined the Texas guard and headed off to war
he was just 18 when he went over seas
to see the world and the Japanese
sent his money home to his mom and dad
paid for the land and everything they had
survived the war and went back school
learned a trade and how to use his tools
but a back woods town the times were still hard
headed to the coast to work the ship yards
had a forgiving wife three boys and two girls
smoked his camels and drank his pearl
for thirty year's he worked the ships
along the docks and in the slips
they had no OSHA or EPA
you did your job and you earned your pay
his only dream was to move back home
when the job was done and the kids were grown
you make your plans and you break your back
save your money and you build your stack
fate steps in and takes it all away
two short years from retirement day
was it ship yard fumes or two packs a day
or just to much drink its hard to say
he moved back home this much is true
I saw it myself from the front pew
for eternity now where he lays
in that deep east Texas red dirt clay
