"San Francisco Mabel Joy" lyrics

His daddy was an honest man, a red dirt Georgia farmer
His mama lived her short life having kids and baling hay
He had fifteen years, an ache inside to wander
He hopped a freight in Waycross and wound up in L.A.

Lord, the cold nights had no pity on a Waycross, Georgia farm boy
Most days he went hungry, then the summer came
He met a girl known on the strip as San Francisco's Mabel Joy
Destitution's child born of an L.A. street called shame

Growing up came quietly in the arms of Mabel Joy
Laughter found their mornings, brought a meaning to his life
Yes, the night before she left, sleep came and left that Waycross country boy
With dreams of Georgia cotton and a California wife

Sunday morning found him standing 'neath the red light at her door
When a right cross sent him reeling, put him face down on the floor
In place of Mabel Joy, he found a merchant mad marine
He growled that Georgia neck is red, but sonny, you're still green

He turned twenty-one in a gray rock federal prison
The old judge had no mercy for a Waycross, Georgia boy
Starin' at those four gray walls, in silence he would listen
That midnight freight he knew would take him back to Mabel Joy

Sunday morning found him lyin' 'neath the red light at her door
With a bullet in his side he cried, "Have you seen Mabel Joy?"
Stunned and shaken someone said, "She's not here no more
She left this house four years today, they say she's looking for
Some Georgia farm boy"