Texas Trilogy: Daybreak, Trainride, Bosque County Romance / If We Make It Through December Medley

Six o'clock silence of the new day beginning
Is heard in a small Texas town
Like a signal from nowhere, people who live there
Are up and moving around
They got bacon to fry, biscuits to bake
On a stove that the Salvation Army won't take
You roll up the windows, turn on the fan
As it's hotter than hell when the sun hits the land

Walter and Fanny, they own the grocery that sells most all that you need
They've been up and working since way up before sun up
Got the whole village to feed
Bring out freshes, throw the bad ones away
That rotted because of the heat yesterday
Store is all dark, you can't see the flies
Set alone round steak and last Monday's pies
And the sleepy hill drug store, cafe is open
Coffee is bubblin' hot
Folks that aint workin, gonna sit there till sundown
And talk about what they aint got
Someone just threw a clutch in an ol' pick up truck
Looks like they're riding on a streak of bad luck
The doctor bills come and the well has run dry
Seems like their grown kids don't care if they live or they die
And that's the way it was in the 1950's

Well the last time I remember that train stopping at the depot
Was when me and my Aunt Nita came riding back from Waco
I remember I was wearing my long pants
She was sharing conversation with a man who sold ball point pens and pencils

And the train stopped once in Clifton
Where my aunt bought me some ice cream
Mom was there to meet us when the train pulled in the compound

Now the kids at night break window lights
The sound of the trains only remain
And the memories and the ones like me
They turned their backs almost every night
And the walls that stand on the railroad light
Where they're used to play run away from the depot man
And the train just don't stop here anymore

I remember me and brother
Used to run down to the depot
Listen to the whistle when the train pulled in the compound
And the engine black and shiny
Black as coal that fed the fire
Engineer would say howdy howdy fellas
And the people by the window
Playing card and reading papers
Looked as far away from as as next summer school vacation

Now the kids at night break window lights
The sound of the trains only remain
And the memories and the ones like me
They turned their backs almost every night
And the walls that stand on the railroad light
Where they're used to play run away from the depot man
Now the train just don't stop here anymore
No the train just don't stop here anymore

Mary Martin was a school girl, seventter or so
When she married Billy Archer about fourteen years ago
Not even out of high school, folks said it wouldn't last
When you grow up in the country
You grow up mighty fast

They got married in a hurry, in March for school was out
Folks said she's pregnant, just wait, you'll find out
Came about one winter, one great November morn
The first of many more to come, a baby boy was born

And cattle is their game
And Archer is their name they gave to the acres that they own
If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves don't die
Another year for Mary will have flown
Another year for Mary will have flown

Now billy kept what cattle his daddy could afford
Bouncing cross the cactus in a 1950 Ford
The cows were sick and skinny
Weeds was all that grew
Billy kept the place alive, the only thing he knew

Mary fixed the supper and Mary scrubbed the clothes
Mary busted horses and blew the baby's nose
Mary and a shotgun kept the rattlesnakes away
How she kept on smiling no one could ever say

And cattle is their game
And Archer is their name they gave to the acres that they own
If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves don't die
Another year for Mary will have flown
Another year for Mary will have flown

Now the drought of '57 was a curse upon the land
No one in Bosque County could give Bill a helping hand
The ground was cracked and broken and the truck was out of gas
And cows can't feed on prickly pear instead of growing grass

Well the weather got the water and a snake bite took a child
And a fire in the old barn took the hay that Bill had piled
The mortgage got the money and the screw worm got the cows
The years have come for Mary, she's waiting for them now

And cattle is their game
And Archer is their name they gave to the acres that they own
If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves don't die
Another year for Mary will have flown
Another year for Mary will have flown

Mary Martin was a school girl, seventter or so
When she married Billy Archer about fourteen years ago
Not even out of high school, folks said it wouldn't last
When you grow up in the country
You grow up mighty fast

If we make it through December
Everything's gonna be all right, I know
It's the coldest time of winter
And I tremble when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December, we'll be fine