My Hometown

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say, son, take a good look around
This is your hometown
Your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
In '65, tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between blacks and whites, there was nothing you
could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night, in the backseat there was a gun
Words were passed, in a shotgun blast troubled times had come
To my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown
Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more
They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says, these jobs are going, boys, and they ain’t coming back
To your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Last night me and Kate, laid in bed, talking about getting out
Packing up our bags, and maybe heading south
I’m thirty-five, we got a boy of our own now
Last night, I sat him up behind the wheel and said, son, take a good look around
This is your hometown