Well, I was born in a called Audubon Southwest Iowa, right where it oughta houses, fourteen saloons, And a feed in nineteen-thirty. Had a neon sign, "Squealer Feeds" And the bus through when they felt the need And they stopped at a place there in town The Old Home Cafe
Now my was a music lovin' man He stood six-foot-seven, had big ol' He'd lost two fingers in a chainsaw but he could still the violin And Mom piana, just the keys in the middle And Dad played a storm on his fiddle 'Cause that's all was to do back there folks, except ta go downtown and watch haircuts
So I was raised on Dust tunes, you see Had a radio an' no TV It was so dog-goned hot I had to wet the bed in the summer to keep cool. Yeah, many's a I'd lay awake for a distant station break Just a-settin' and a-wettin' an' a-lettin' that fry.
Well, I listened to Nashville and Tulsa and And Oklahoma City my ear a callus And never forget them announcers at three A.M. They'd come on an' say "Friends, many a soul who needs us "So send them letters an' ta Jesus "That's J-E-S-U-S friends, in a' Del Rio, Texas."
But the I remember, on the edge a' town Was the place where you really got the sound Yeah, a place where the truckers used ta stop on their way to Moins was signs all over them windowsills Like "If the Devil don't get ya, then will" And "The bank don't no beer, and we don't cash no checks."
Now truckers never talked about nothin' but haulin' And the four-letter words was really They thought home-town gals was nothin' but toys for their amusement. Chevys and Macks and big ol' stacks They's always 'bout their livers an' backs But they was fast-livin', strung-out, son of a guns
Now the gal waitin' tables was really Had a motor on a fairly new chassis And she knew how to them truckers; name was Mavis Davis Yeah, she'd pour 'em a coffee, she'd bat her eyes Then she'd to 'em tell 'er some big fat lies Then she'd ask 'em how the wife and kids was, there in Joplin?
Now had all of her ducks in a row Weighed pounds; put on quite a show ya of a couple a' Cub Scouts tryin' ta set up a Sears, Roebuck pup tent There's no proposition she couldn't handle Next ta her, nothin' could hold a Not a hell of a lot upstairs, but from on down, Disneyland!
Now the truckers, on the other hand, was crass They remind ya of fingernails on glass A-stompin' on in, tracks all over the Montgomery Ward linoleum Yeah, they'd pound them counters and them stools They's always fights with the local fools But one look at Mavis, and they'd turn into a bunch a'
Well, I'll never forget them days by I's just a kid, 'bout foot high But I never forgot that lesson an' and singin', the country way Yeah, them walkin', talkin' truck stop Came back ta life in As "The Old Home Filler-up An' On A-Truckin' Cafe"
Oh, the Old Home An' Keep On A-Truckin' Oh, the Old Home Filler-up An' On A-Truckin' Oh, the Old Filler-up An' Keep On A-Truckin' Cafe Oh, the Old Home Filler-up An' On A-Truckin' Oh, the Old Home Filler-up An' On A-Truckin' Oh, the Old Home Filler-up An' On A-Truckin' Cafe