Brought up on a dairy farm in the Catskills in New York
We always had enough to eat with beef and veal and pork
With veggies from the garden and milk from Jersey cows
I guess we lived a life style that’s called subsistence now.
But always short of money, we couldn’t buy most things for cash
And there always were a lot more days than dollars in our stash
The milk checks came out twice a month, the fifteenth and the first
And sometimes weeks were not too bad but sometimes weeks were worse
When we needed clothes for senior trips, we usually sold a cow
Which seems so self-defeating when I think about it now
By trading in the future for what we needed right away
The money just got smaller when it came to milk-check day
So we charged some things at Bailey’s Store, then across the road at Cook’s
And we charged our gas at Raymond Brown’s and got by hook or crook
Until our mother softly said, “I guess we now can pay.
“Wally Stryker brought the mail, the milk check came today.”
“The weights are off, the price is wrong, the butter fat's too low”
Our Dad would say ‘bout every time in words both loud and slow
So Mom would firmly tell us kids, “Better go outside and play.”
“Your Dad has got to pay the bills, the milk check came today.”
At his battered home-made desk, I still can see my Dad
As he pulled old bills from pigeon holes and paid with what he had
The checks he wrote left handed, as he shooed us kids away
Sustained the farm and family when the milk check came that day.
So we milked the cows each morning and we milked the cows each night
In the winter time we shoveled shit, baled hay in summers bright
I think I started planning then so I ‘d never have to say
“I guess we now can pay the bills, the milk check came today.”
So I grubbed my way through college, driving truck and digging ditch
With luck, I got some real good jobs, some folks would call us rich
But I guess I’m only richer now in quite a different way
When long ago I heard these words, “The milk check came today.”
That damned old farm has branded me with thoughts I can’t dispel
And leaves me with these tales & lies I always have to tell
Sometimes at night before I sleep old sounds and words hold sway
Like “fit to eat” & “co’ bos’” & “the milk check came today”……………...
We always had enough to eat with beef and veal and pork
With veggies from the garden and milk from Jersey cows
I guess we lived a life style that’s called subsistence now.
But always short of money, we couldn’t buy most things for cash
And there always were a lot more days than dollars in our stash
The milk checks came out twice a month, the fifteenth and the first
And sometimes weeks were not too bad but sometimes weeks were worse
When we needed clothes for senior trips, we usually sold a cow
Which seems so self-defeating when I think about it now
By trading in the future for what we needed right away
The money just got smaller when it came to milk-check day
So we charged some things at Bailey’s Store, then across the road at Cook’s
And we charged our gas at Raymond Brown’s and got by hook or crook
Until our mother softly said, “I guess we now can pay.
“Wally Stryker brought the mail, the milk check came today.”
“The weights are off, the price is wrong, the butter fat's too low”
Our Dad would say ‘bout every time in words both loud and slow
So Mom would firmly tell us kids, “Better go outside and play.”
“Your Dad has got to pay the bills, the milk check came today.”
At his battered home-made desk, I still can see my Dad
As he pulled old bills from pigeon holes and paid with what he had
The checks he wrote left handed, as he shooed us kids away
Sustained the farm and family when the milk check came that day.
So we milked the cows each morning and we milked the cows each night
In the winter time we shoveled shit, baled hay in summers bright
I think I started planning then so I ‘d never have to say
“I guess we now can pay the bills, the milk check came today.”
So I grubbed my way through college, driving truck and digging ditch
With luck, I got some real good jobs, some folks would call us rich
But I guess I’m only richer now in quite a different way
When long ago I heard these words, “The milk check came today.”
That damned old farm has branded me with thoughts I can’t dispel
And leaves me with these tales & lies I always have to tell
Sometimes at night before I sleep old sounds and words hold sway
Like “fit to eat” & “co’ bos’” & “the milk check came today”……………...
Love this - having lived in SE Kansas as co-owner of a dairy farm, I can certainly appreciate the above - except, I was the one paying the bills :)
ReplyDelete