You left home to write
a story of your own,
With the Beatles and the Stones
And a flower in your hair.
Too young to know the wicked
ways of the road,
It seemed romantic at the time
But didn't get you anywhere.
Soon you found yourself alone
With a California sun burn,
with no one you could turn to and nowhere you could go.
So you left the golden gates
to find the Evergreen state
And settled for a good-ol boy
who promised you a home.

And you swore up and down you were never gonna leave his side,
With a baby on your hip and a shiner underneath each eye,
No one was there to teach you how to be strong,
You were gonna have to learn on your own,
But the good book made you feel like it just wouldn't be right.

You sheltered his burden, and gave him three children,
Took a few good beatin's 'fore you finally got away.
You made up with your mother and you moved out to the country,
It didn't make it easy but for awhile it felt safe.
So you fell for a ranch hand, he was young and handsome
But he came with an addiction that he couldn't seem to shake.
Pretty soon you were reading vows there, down at the courthouse,
In the spring of 1989 with a baby on the way.

And you swore up and down it was gonna be different this time,
You loved each other and the kids would be together
You were finally sleeping through the night,
Nobody knew just how bad it might get,
See the devil wasn't through with you yet,
You had a lot of years of fightin' ahead
By the grace of God.

Grandpa didn't like it,
so you two hit the highway,
With four kids in the back seat
of a rusty Chevrolet,
Tried to settle down,
but didn't last too long in town,
It seemed the longer that you stayed somewhere
The quicker that you left.
So you tried the city life,
Work was easier to find
But the days were long and the drugs were white
And that didn't help you none,
Tried to keep it all together
From the motel to the homeless shelter
'Til one too many misdemeanor
Had left you on the run.

And you swore up and down
You were never gonna make it alive,
Without a dollar to your name
And a child like a dog at your side,
Bad news was just a phone call away,
You were selling roses by the interstate,
There ain't no doubt you'd do whatever it'd take to get by.

The years passed quicker than before,
And the kids were young but they were nearly grown,
Seen too much of this dirty world
To be children I suppose,
Daddy'd gone and lost his mind
Leaving you to a single-wide
And a graveyard shift to keep you up at night
But you weren't sleeping anymore
You were living on cigarettes,
With the same bad dream playing
In your head,
And the rain on the tin roof was like a heartbeat keeping you alive,
That might have been the end I think,
and I asked you how it was gonna be
Are you really givin' up and leaving me?
Cause I ain't ready to watch you die.

And you swore up and down you were never gonna leave my side,
Skin and bones lookin' at me,
You were smaller than the tears in your eyes,
The roads been rough but it ain't over just yet,
You never know just how good it might get,
But I know it's hard to run a race when you can't see the finish line.

When I left home,
I had a story of my own,
And I loved the Beatles and the Stones
Just as much
As Momma did.