There's a whole lotta people lookin' down their noses at me

'Cause I didn't come from a wealthy family

There was ten of us livin' in a two room shack

On the banks of the river by the railroad track

We kept chickens in a pen in the back

And everybody said we was po' folks My daddy was a farmer but all he ever raised was us

Dug a forty foot well, struck thirty six gallons of dust

The Salvation Army give us clothes to wear

A man from the county came to cut our hair

We lived next door to a millionaire

But we wasn't nothin' 'cept po' folks We was po' folks livin' in a rich folks' world

We sure was a hungry bunch

If the wolf had ever come to our front door

He'd have had brought a picnic lunch My granddaddy's pension was a dollar and thirty three cents

That was ten dollar less than the landlord wanted for rent

The landlord's letters got nasty indeed

He wrote 'Get out' but Pa couldn't read

And we was too broke to even pay heed

But that's how it is when you're po' folks We was po' folks livin' in a rich folks' world

We sure was a hungry bunch

If the wolf had ever come to our front door

He'd have had brought a picnic lunch But we had something in our house money can't buy

Kept us warm in the winter, cool when the sun was high

For whenever we didn't have food enough

And the howlin' winds would get pretty rough

We patched the cracks and set the table with love 'Cause that's what you do when you're po' folks

And we wasn't nothin' but po' folks

My mom and my dad was po' folks

My brother and my sister was po' folks

My dog and my cat was po' folks