My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '42 When I was just a child in my mom's arms My daddy plowed the fields and prayed and did all he could do To safe that broke-down Oklahoma farm When one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my momma They'd finally saved enough for us to go California was his dream, a paradise that he had seen In pictures and in magazines that told him so California cotton fields Where labor camps were filled with worried men and broken dreams California cotton fields Was as close to wealth as daddy ever came Almost everything we owned was sold or left behind From daddy's tools to the fruit that momma canned Some folks came to say farewell to see what all we had to sell Some just came to shake my daddy's hand Well, that model a was loaded down and California bound And the dream of hope was just four days away But the only change that I remember seein' in my daddy Was when his brown hair turned to silver gray California cotton fields Where labor camps were filled with worried men and broken dreams California cotton fields Was as close to wealth as daddy ever came California cotton fields Where labor camps were filled with worried men and broken dreams California cotton fields Was as close to wealth as daddy ever came Was as close to wealth as daddy ever came Was as close to wealth as daddy ever came