Jeff Davis Pie

Well Mamma called me up 'n said,
«It's your grandma’s birthday son, so you 'n
Sheryl need to come--- and bring the girls.»
She said that it was 80 years since
Grandma’d taken her first breath,
and a party with all the family’d «mean the world…»
Well 80 years is a
long time to hang around
if you count your age by time.
But Grandma’s 80 years was like a
small slice of her Jeff Davis pie,
and we all think a second 80'd be just fine!
Well, Grandma came from Arkansas 'n
that’s where she me my grandpa 'n
they had three daughters--- each ten years apart.
She cooked the meals 'n washed the clothes
and I think she even had time to sew
a dress or two or three or forty-four.
Well 80 years is a
long time to hang around
if you count your age by time.
But Grandma’s 80 years was like a
small slice of her Jeff Davis pie,
and we all think a second 80'd be just fine!
Now I remember trips across the mountain,
'round about Christmas time---
that queasy feelin' when we took a curve too fast.
But I remember pullin' up to that
screened-in porch and thinkin' we’d surprise 'em
'till my brother let the screen door slam.
I remember cinnamon rolls and eatin' raw dough
and old lipsticks in the bottom drawer
and that big steel bed that squeaked beneath my head…
And those gas room-heaters and the magnifying mirror
and that plastic-shrunken-head souvenir
and coleslaw and toastin' buttery bread…
And the time that Grandpa gave me a gun
and I shot that squirrel that was old as the sun
and Grandma softened him up in a dumplin' stew…
And when we’d go to church she’d pass
around the Certs after service, then we’d
all go home to eat 'n sleep till 2, or 3 or 4 or 5 or.
80 years is a
long time to hang around
if you count your age by time.
But Grandma’s 80 years was like a
small slice of her Jeff Davis pie,
and we all think a second 80'd be just fine!
Now, some people like to QUANTIFY
and graph their lives like pieces of pie
and subdivide their story like a book.
But 80's just a number…
and don’t it make you wonder
why somebody’d slice up a pie if it’s just for looks?
You best dig right in, cause…
80 years is a
long time to hang around
if you count your age in time.
But Grandma’s 80 years was like a
little bitty slice of her Jeff Davis pie,
and we all think a second 80'd be just fine!
Cause the spice of life sure ain’t time---No, it’s Grandma 'n Grandpa 'n Jeff
Davis pie.