He drinks orange juice and vodka
In the basement while she's talkin'
To someone long distance
For hours and hours on end
And as he's slowly sippin'
He thinks about his children
And the heart attacks that youngest daughter's
Always given him
He ain't smoke no marijuana
Since he got on with the railroad
And he's been on with the railroad for
A long and loathsome while
But the day that he retires
He'll smoke himself to China
He'll leave behind his worries
As he races through the skies
The days are dark
Down in the holler
Waitin' for the sun to shine
On the back
You have been breakin'
Tryin' to earn
A peace of mind
She sells Avon to her buddies
And saves a little money
On the makeup she's been using
To hide away the years
And she sits and watches TV
Usually every evening
That there ain't some kind of ballgame
That her daughter has to cheer
She sneaks menthols in the mornin'
While her family's still a snorin'
And as she burns the Eggos
She looks back at her life
That heart she broke in high school
He is singin' on the Opry
She wonders what the hell that she was thinkin at the time
The days are dark
Down in the holler
Waitin' for the sun to shine
On the back
You have been breakin'
Tryin' to earn
A peace of mind
♪
Their youngest daughter Stella
She's runnin' with this fella
That he can not stand the thought of
That he surely does despise
He's told her he best never
See the two of them together
But it's hard to keep an eye on her
When you're workin' all the time
There are things he needs to tend to
And the bills the bank keeps sendin'
Lord the zeroes on the end
Keep pushing further to the right
Like a freight train haulin' sorrow
And movin' ever onward
Through the tunnel of forever
To the never endin' light