Pierce Pettis Follow

Chicken wire floats in the big parade
Marching bands and the prom queen's wave
From an old home movie fading with time
Alabama 1959

Daddy had hair, mom was thin
Look at the silly clothes they wore back then
Studebaker truck parked in the drive
Alabama 1959

Men wore hats and called you son
Children said "Yes sir, yes mam" ladies called you "hun"
And the days just blew away like dandelions
In Alabama 1959

TVA strung power lines
Lit up our world with Pepsodent and Lucky Strikes
And the TVs rolled in black and white
Alabama 1959

Football games beneath the lights
No one ever dared to cross the color line
Black faces watched through the fence outside
Alabama 1959

Don't use that word my mother said
It isn't Christian, call them colored folks instead
So I learned to be polite
In Alabama 1959

These old home movies, well they make me cry
Still I bring them out and watch sometimes
And all those ghosts come back alive
Alabama 1959