California Cottonfields lyrics

Song information

Artist: Merle Haggard
Album: Someday We'll Look Back

Lyrics

My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43
When I was just a child in momma's arms
My daddy plowed the ground and hoped that someday we could leave
This run-down mortgaged oklahoma farm
And then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my momma
That he'd finally saved enough to go
California was his dream of paradise, for he had seen
Pictures in magazines that told him so

California cottonfields
Where labor camps were filled with worried men with broken dreams
California cottonfields
As close to wealth as daddy ever came

Almost everything we had was sold or left behind
From my daddy's plow to the soup that momma canned
Some folks came to say farewell or see what all we had to sell;
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand
Yeah the model a was loaded down and california bound;
And a change of luck was just 4 days away
But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
Was when his dark hair turned to silver grey

California cottonfields
Where labor camps were filled with worried men with broken dreams
California cottonfields
As close to wealth as daddy ever came