We got up before sunup to get the work done up

We'd work in the fields till the sun had gone down

We've stood and we've cried as we helplessly watched

A hailstorm a beatin' our crops to the ground

And I've gone to bed hungry many nights as a lad

In the good old days when times were bad.

I've seen daddy's hands break open and bleed

And I've seen him work till he's stiff as a board

I've seen mama lay and suffer in sickness

In need of a doctor we couldn't afford

Anything at all was more than we had

In the good old days when times were bad.

No amount of money could buy from me

The mem'ries that I have of them

No amount of money could pay me

To go back and live through it again.

We've got up before we found ice on the floor

Where the wind would blew snow through the cracks in the wall

And I've walked many miles to an old country school

With my luch in a bag of my overalls

Anything at all was more than we had

In the good old days when times were bad.

No amount of money could buy from me

The mem'ries that I have of them

No amount of money could pay me

To go back and live through it again...