Current Events > I was just 14 year of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father

(+) Yeah! (+)

Chaney was a hired man and Papa had taken him up to Fort Smith to help lead back a string of Mustang ponies he'd bought. In town, Chaney had fallen to drink and cards and lost all his money. He got it into his head he was being cheated and went back to the boarding house for his Henry rifle. When Papa tried intervene, Chaney shot him. Chaney fled. He could have walked his horse, for not a soul in that city could not be bothered to give chase. No doubt Chaney fancied himself scot-free. But he was wrong. You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothin' free, except the grace of God.

Well he just turned 17
When he left old Abilene
With his bagsand permission
From the kin
Yeah but things just weren't the same
After his Momma signed her name
And let the navytake him in
ahhh but
What of Alicia
Espanola
13 years old
Child of Mexico

I was sheriff of this county
when I was 25 years old.
Hard to believe.
My grandfather was a lawman.
Father too.
Me and him was sheriffs at the same
time, him up in Plano and me out here.
I think he's pretty proud of that.
I know I was.
Some of the old-time sheriffs
never even wore a gun.
Folks find that hard to believe.
Jim Scarborough never carried one.
That's the younger Jim.
Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one
up in Comanche County.
I always liked to hear
about the old-timers.
Never missed a chance to do so.
You can't help but compare yourself
against the old-timers.
Can't help but wonder
how they'd have operated these times.
There's this boy I sent to the electric
chair at Huntsville here a while back.
My arrest and my testimony.
He killed a 14-year-old girl.
Paper said it was a crime of passion...
...but he told me there
wasn't any passion to it.
Told me he'd planned to kill somebody
for as long as he could remember.
Said if they turned him out,
he'd do it again.
Said he knew he was going to hell.
Be there in about 15 minutes.
I don't know what to make of that.
I surely don't.
The crime you see now,
it's hard to even take its measure.
It's not that I'm afraid of it.
I always knew you had to be willing
to die to even do this job.
But I don't want to push
my chips forward and go out.
...and meet something I don't understand.
A man would have
to put his soul at hazard.
He'd have to say, "OK.
I'll be part of this world. "
tl;dr

It seems like only yesterday when I heard my little girl say
"Daddy, there's a boy ouside, his name is Rod.
He wants to play in our backyard
Can he daddy? Can he daddy? Oh please daddy."

Is it really so long ago she'd come to me and wanna know
"Dad, there's a boy outside, his name is Lee.
He wants to carry my books for me.
Can he daddy? Is it alright, dad? He's got freckles, dad."

The men in my little girl's life
The men in my little girl's life

Then came pony tails and jeans and my little girl was in her teens
"Popsie, there's a boy outside, his name is Tom.
He wants to take me to the prom.
OK, popsie? He's cute, popsie. We'll be home early, popsie."

Before I knew it time had flown and how my little girl had grown
Now it was "Father, there's a boy outside, his name is Eddie.
He wants to know if we can go steady.
Can we, father? Yes, father. Oh, can we borrow the car, pop?"

Yes it seems only yesterday I heard my lovely daughter say
"Dad, there's a boy outside, his name is Jim.
He asked me if I'd marry him. I said yes, dad.
Got something in your eye, dad? I love him, dad."
The men in my little girl's life
The men in my little girl's life

A child, an adolescent, a young lady, a wife
And oh yes, there's another man in my little girl's life
"Hi dad, there's a boy outside, his name is Tim.
I told him Grampa was gonna babysit him.
Thanks, dad. Bless you, dad. Good night, dad."
The men in my little girl's life
The men in my little girl's life

I thought you was gonna say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your eye.