Sheb Wooley - That's My Ma lyrics

Some years ago my ma and pa set up housekeeping on a little hillside farm And started raisin' cotton and kids When they first moved into the old place they figured some day they'd build a new house up on the hill there but it seemed every year there was a new baby And they just never got far enough ahead for that new house Lord knows it wasn't because they didn't work hard One of the first things I can remember Is my ma pickin' cotton with a young'un ridin' on her pick sack As a matter of fact there for about five or six years Ma had a young'en on her pick sack every fall Another thing I remember about ma is how she used to scrub our clothes on a rubboard With water she carried up from the well and heated over a wood fire And soap she made herself from fatback and bacon rinds from hogs she'd help feed And on those Saturday nights the roads got a little crooked And pa'd come home with the wrong kind of load Ma didn't go lookin' for a lawyer to get her a divorce In the first place ma didn't know about any lawyer And in the second place she didn't want a divorce anyhow Ma would always say a hard workin' man 's gotta let off a little steam Besides it was about time for her to start thinkin' About what us kids were goin to wear to Sunday School next morning Friends you can talk about what it takes to hold a family together But in our case it was my ma Ma was not much for being seen in public speaking her mind She let pa think that he ruled with an iron hand but she stole a little bit of his glory With that extra litte pat she'd give us as she'd shoot us off to bed by the way she tucked the covers around us later When she was sure we were sound asleep Things have changed an awful lot since than I've been lucky enough to get started in the entertainment field I thank God for having been born in a country where the lowlest farm boy Can reach for the moon and at least get a glimpse of it I read somewhere that behind every great man there's a woman And I figure if I ever was to do anything great I'd be proud to give the credit to the finest woman I've ever known And that's my ma