"My Hometown" lyrics

I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
In that big old Buick, I'd sit on his lap
And steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say, "Son, take a good look around
This is your hometown

This is your hometown
Your hometown
This is your hometown."

In '65
tension was running high
at my high school
There was a lot of fights
'tween the black and white
There was nothing you could do

Two cars at a light on a Saturday night
In the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed, in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown

To my hometown
My hometown
To my hometown

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They closed down the textile mill 'cross the little Texas tracks
Foreman said, "These jobs are going, boys
And they ain't coming back
To your hometown

To your hometown
To your hometown
To your hometown."

Last night me and Mary, we laid in bed
Talked about getting out
Packing up our bags. Maybe, heading south
I'm thirty-five, we got a boy of our own now
Last night we drove him downtown and said
"Son, take a good look around
This is your hometown

This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown

And though the world you may travel all around
This is your hometown."