Christmas As I Knew It

Christmas as I Knew It - Johnny Cash (約翰尼·卡什)

One day near Christmas

And I was just a child

Mama called us together

And mama tried to smile

She said you know the cottoncrop

Hasn't been too good this year

There's just no spending money

Well at least we're all here

I hope you won't expect a lot of Christmas presents

Just be thankful that there is plenty to eat

That's quite a blessing

That'll make things a little more pleasant

And us kids got to thinking

How really blessed we were

At least we were all healthy

And best of all we had her

Roy cut down a pigapple tree

And we drag it home Jack and me

Daddy killed a squirrel

And Louise made the bread

Reba decorated the tree with popcorn strings

Before we went to bed

Mama and daddy sacrificed

'Cause this Christmas was lean

But after all there was the babies Tom and Joanne

Babies need a few things

I whittled a whistle for my brother Jack

And we fought now and then

When I gave Jack that whistle

He knew I thought the world of him

Mama made the girl's dresses

Out of flower sacks

And when she ironed them down

You couldn't tell that they hadn't come from town

A sharecropped family across the road

Didn't have it as good as us

They didn't even have a light

And it was way past dusk

And mama said

Well I bet they don't even have coaloil

Or beans to boil

A lot of apples oranges and such

Me and Jack took a jar of coaloil

And some hickernuts we'd found

We walked to the sharecropper's porch

And set 'em down

A poor old ragged lady

Eased open the door

She picked up the coaloil

And hickernuts and said

I sure do thank you

And quickly closed the door

We started back home me and Jack

And about halfway we stopped looked back

And in the sharecropper's window

At last was a light

So for one of the neighbors and for us

It was a good Christmas night

Christmas came Christmas went

Christmas that year was heaven sent

Then daddy put on his gumboots

Waited for the thaw

Back home in Dyess Arkansas