Day the Saw Mill Closed Down

(Jerry Foster - Bill Rice)



Her house on the corner of Cedar and Elm

Still stands in our town

But it's been empty since she moved away

The day that the saw mill closed down.



We'd sit on her porch almost every night

I remember how happy we were

We'd grow up and marry I'd work at the mill

To make a living for her.



Her father worked at the mill

Like most of the others in town

I lost my girl when he lost his job

The day that the saw mill closed down.



She moved from the corner of Cedar and Elm

And I never saw her again

But I can still hear her mother's soft voice

Saying honey it's time to come in.



No longer do mill hands live here

The giant saws don't make a sound

No longer does my love live here

Not since the saw mill closed down.



She left when the saw mill closed down...



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Narrative by Bobby spoken after song:



(Where the gentle summer breezes blow.)

I've lived in Kansas City all of my life and I guess you could say I've done

pretty well 'cause we lived in a modern well insulated house in the suburbs

With storm windows central heat and air-conditionin'

We got plenty of privacy the neighbors don't bother us and we don't bother

them but you take that air-conditioner for instance

That's a wonderful invention and I wouldn't take anything for it

But you know sometimes I get to thinkin'

I'd just like to open all of the windows and holler at somebody

Or feel the honest-to-goodness breeze again or even hear a train whistle

Or hear those two girls in Newport Arkansas singin' You Are My Sunshine

When I was a kid I used to visit my grandparents every summer in Newport

And Newport's a little town down on the White River

And they lived in the sorta yellow frame house down close to the levee

And they got awful hot there during the day

But at night the breeze was blowing from the river and it sure felt good

I slept right next to the window and on some nights when the air was just

right I could hear sounds driftin' in from all parts of that little town

Like the train pullin' into the depot ever night and always the chorus of

crickets but crickets that's a sound you don't even hear after you get used

to it but it's pleasant sorta like background music

But the sound I remember most was You Are My Sunshine

I don't know exactly where it came from but I think it must have been the

house Beyond the vacant lot on the other corner

But almost every night I would hear those two girl singin'

And they sure could sing pretty

They sang other songs but that's the one I remember most

And I've often wondered who they were and whatever happened to 'em

I think they must have been very pretty and had black hair.