Leaving Mayse

“Leaving Mayse”
there weren’t much left in Mayse after I got home, all them jobs went away with the war,
lucky I could work on daddy’s farm for the time bein or i’d be sittin on a sidewalk,
with a tin can like some of them other some fellers
we wasn’t plannin on stayin in Mayes much longer, Hattie and me, we’d done got married
fixin to have a baby, start a family, it just weren’t no place for us anymore

a man of ambition, that’s what I was, makin the drive to Choteau every Saturday evenin,
like clockwork at the Choteau County Junior College with bout twenty other fellers
a couple of em had been to that god awful place, most barely old enough to shave,
laughin and hollerin too much, buncha sad sticks you ask me
takin it real serious, getting me an education, gonna be a teacher someday, a real somebody
always readin and writin real good, I was thinkin I could teach english,
maybe some numbers if I buckled done real hard

course everyone thought ol LW was crazy for wantin to be a teacher,
ain’t no money in teachin, I should study to be a doctor or somethin fancy
I’d seen enough of them in the war, most of them dumber an a post, the rest not fit to print
I woulda done just bout anythin else, so long as it kept blood off my hands
needed to do somethin real soon though, that little bundle was comin soon,
anyday now her mama said, had better get ready
so’s after I’d help daddy, I’d look after Hattie and bury my nose in em books,
opportunity was waitin for me, I’d be ready

Mr. Johnson weren’t ready to retire, Mayse was a one teacher town,
hopes was dashed, all that time learnin gone to waste
my sweet optimist Hattie, heard from a cousin of hers she ain’t talked to in a long time,
lives across the border in little ol town near Springfield,
they was in need of a teacher somethin awful
hearin her young man was an educated feller, they thought I might be interested
all a sudden Nixa was soundin mighty good

we was still livin with Hattie’s parents when that baby came out hollerin,
louder an all getout, so much noise for such a little feller so brand new
namin him Daniel after a good buddy in the 344th, stayed behind in France,
given my boy a big name to live up to
lettin him know every chance I could

that teachin job weren’t gonna forever, and we couldn’t dilly dally round no more
packin up everything we owned in that old model T her daddy bought us,
sayin our goodbyes to all our kin, promisin to write oftn
settin him down in the backseat fore we hit the road, his mama next to him,
lookin down at Hatties spittin image,
wake up little Danny, were goin to Missoura