Jack McKeon - Highway 29 Lyrics

We moved west of town bought some land and started clearing
November, 1944
I'd of rather turned a wrench, but the factory wasn't needing
A man who wasn't fit to fight a war
The choice I had was harder than the stones that they called soil
For a man with a crooked back and a calloused hand
I couldn't guess it then, all the changes that were coming
We all thought the war would never end

But the soldiers soon came home, turned the town into a city
I took a wife and all the land that we could buy
We couldn't keep up still, it's hard to beat the GI Bill
Soon the cranes were filling up our sky

Times always changing the way that we're living
The rules that we we've made to survive
From all that you own, to all you pass on
Till your name's on the stone when you die

Then Eisenhower said that the way to get ahead
Was to make a highway out of all these country lanes
So a man came to our place and said they'd planned the interstate
And split our fields with imminent domain
Still the times were good to me, but the good times they were brief
When the only son we had caught sick and died
So I laid him down to sleep, 'neath the shade of a pin oak tree,
Down the hill I heard the truckers engine whine

Times always changing the way that we're living
The rules that we we've made to survive
From all that you own, to all you pass on
Till your name's on the stone when you die

I'm an old man now these fields have long forgot the plow
There's no one left to keep this farm alive
The plot beneath the tree has three more stones and room for me
When I return to the dirt that shaped my life

Now they're always wanting more, turning two lanes into four
It gets closer to the graves every time
Will they ever be forgiven? They claim the land is for the living
They'll dig 'em up for Highway 29

Times always changing the way that we're living
The rules that we we've made to survive
From all that you own, to all you pass on
Till your name's on the stone when you die