Numbers On The Cars

(album: Different 'Round Here - 2019)

Stopped by that house on Nesbitt Lake
He sitting in his easy chair
Watching the Sunday evening race
Tells me my grandma's in the other room
Guess he forgot we laid her down
It'll be a year come June

Then he mumbles about Vietnam
He don't know who the hell I am
But the drivers, he tells me who they are
He still knows the numbers on the cars

Try to get him out like we used to
Now I load the truck and I drive the boat
'Cause there ain't much he can do
Cast him a line and watched it as it sank
Thinking how we used to talk for hours
Now he just stares at the bank
He used to know every stop in this fishing hole
Though he probably thinks that we're in Mexico
But he knows his way around that boat
Even in the dark
And he still knows the numbers on the cars

I know he ain't all there
But I don't care
My mind still full of memories with him
And he may not know
All the words to the song
But he still knows Merle Haggard's voice when he hears it

Stopped by that house on Nesbitt Lake
With a couple of tickets
To go see the Sunday evening race
As we watched those cars fly around the track
I asked the Lord for just one more time bring my old friend back
Then somewhere around lap 23
The old man turned and smiled at me
For a moment I know he knows where we are
'Cause he still knows the numbers
He still knows the numbers
He still knows the numbers on the cars