In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)

(album: Mama Tried - 1968)

We got up before sunup to get the work done up
We'd work in the fields till the sun had gone down
We've stood and we've cried as we helplessly watched
A hailstorm a beating our crops to the ground
And I've gone to bed hungry many nights as a lad
In the good old days when times were bad.

I've seen daddy's hands break open and bleed
And I've seen him work till he's stiff as a board
I've seen mama lay and suffer in sickness
In need of a doctor we couldn't afford
Anything at all was more than we had
In the good old days when times were bad.

No amount of money could buy from me
The mem'ries that I have of them
No amount of money could pay me
To go back and live through it again.

We've got up before we found ice on the floor
Where the wind would blew snow through the cracks in the wall
And I've walked many miles to an old country school
With my luch in a bag of my overalls
Anything at all was more than we had
In the good old days when times were bad.

No amount of money could buy from me
The mem'ries that I have of them
No amount of money could pay me
To go back and live through it again...