Daddy Was a Traveling Salesman
The strangers started coming round
They said that they were salesmen too
And Mama put on better clothes
And started looking sort of new
Each time she sent me out to play
So she could look at everything they had
Mama liked the traveling salesmen
They must have made her think of my dad
One weekend when my dad came home
He asked me how I spent my days
I mentioned Mama's salesman friends
And how I went outside to play
Then he went and had a fight with Mom
And they must have kept it up until dawn
Cause she was crying when she woke me for breakfast
And told me that my daddy was gone
I've heard a lot of traveling salesman tales
I'll hear them for the rest of my life
But I never want to hear another story
About a traveling salesman's wife
And if I ever have a family
And a little boy on my own
You better believe I'll find a job
That keeps me close to home