DON'T IT BRING BACK MEMORIES
(Song of Art Browning's Kentucky Coal Memories of his Father)

 

chorus
Don't it bring back memories boy, oh don't it bring back memories
when we lived in those coal mining camps,
oh don't it bring back memories
oh don't it bring memories
 
I remember my dad would come home from work
with his face all black with coal dust
he would take a bath in a number 2 washtub
and use the same water as us
we ate biscuits and gravy, and fried potatoes
green onions, hoecakes, and soup beans
salmon cakes and rice, made everything nice
when it snowed we had snow cream
 
chorus
 
I went to a little 3 room school house
I can remember it still
we didn't have power, or running water there
and the outhouse was down the hill
we'd carry our water from the pump at yellow creek
right down the railroad tracks
a train would come along and scare us to death
we'd spill the water and have to go back
 
chorus
 
the miner worked hard just to feed his family
sometimes he'd work double shifts
the pay was small, but the miner stood tall
and on Friday he would draw his script
I can't forget my mother, his wife and no other
who worked just as hard as him
on the old scrub board, and scrubbing floors
and canning that blackberry jam
 
                  chorus
 
This song is sung to the tune of
"Don't It Make You Want To Go Home"

Written by Art Browning