Mama Hated Diesels

(album: Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Trucker's Favorites - 1972)

Mama hated diesels so bad
I guess I knew it was something to do with dad
The first time I ever seen her cry
Was after one of them things went by
Mama hated diesels so bad

I remember hearing those semis gearing down
My mom and me lived right on the high grade end of town
I sure loved them white freighters, but there was something in Mama's eyes
When she'd catch me watching the road, lord, a little bitty piece of her died

Mama hated diesels so bad
I guess I knew it was something to do with dad
The first time I ever seen her cry
Was after one of them things went by
Mama hated diesels so bad

As the years passed and I grew older, mama did too
Pretty soon she stopped singing and laughing, well, she'd hardly even eat
I began staying away from home on the weekdays, and wouldn't come home from school till way after dark
I was always too busy having fun either messing around with some girl or hanging around the truckstop
Or talking too my buddies about about the big rigs that were all the time rolling in
Or talking about all the crazy places we never been, like California
Well, one day the county sheriff came up to me
He said they found my mama wandering all by herself in the middle of the highway crying
She was trying of all things Lord, to flag down one of them rigs with a pocket handkerchief
Well, that left me all on my own
I got a job unloading rigs down at the local freight yard
Pretty soon I got a rig of my own and I left hometown on my very first runt to Frisco
That was three years ago today, and I ain't been home in all that time since then, till now

Now it's me and the local preacher, standing in the graveyard grass
Staring down at the highway, watching those big boys pass
Well he laid his hand upon me and he prayed for quite some time
I could barely understand the words he said behind that highways whine

He handed me a faded photograph, he said he found it in my mama's hand
He said , I'm afraid you and this picture were the best your mama ever had
Well I looked down at that picture, it was Mama and some guy
Standing beside a semi-truck, "just married" written on the side

Mama hated diesels so bad
I guess I knew it was something to do with dad
The first time I ever seen her cry
Was after one of them things went by
Mama hated diesels so bad