I guess it's no secret that I did a few years in San Quentin.
And on my release,
I noticed a lot of different things
had come to pass while I was out of
circulation.
Like the girls' dresses were shorter,
and the freeways were wider,
and the old steam
engines were gone forever.
But the one thing I noticed most of
all down through the San Joaquin Valley
was the disappearance
of so many labor camps where once I'd lived from time to time myself.
I noticed that that
one there at Houston, California was gone.
The old crowns camp that lie between Formosa
and Bakersfield was just a barren spot with
a few cottonwood trees and surrounded by an
olive orchard.
Though a few still remain,
like the old Blackburn's camp out on Weed
Patch Highway,
it was an evident fact that someone
was trying to do away with them all.
And I couldn't help but wonder,
what's going to happen to the farm workers and the fruit pickers
who move from town to town,
the man with the big family
who can't afford the old high standard of
living?
And it was these thoughts and my memories that
inspired me to write this song.
I came back to this old town cause my home was here
And to try to find some things I'd left behind
But they'd only been away for just a few short years
But I'd forgot about the pace of modern times
I saw changes all around me, and some were good
to recognize my side of town They
tore down the swinging casing from the
cottonwood And that tree was all that marked familiar
ground Oh,
they're tearing the labor camps down
And I feel a little sentimental shame
Where's a hungry man gonna live at in this
town Oh, they're tearing the labor camps down
The Hilltop Family Market had been moved somewhere
And the name was changed to fit the newer
homes
The folks that I remember were no longer
there And the cabin that my daddy built was gone
Oh, they're tearing the labor camps down
And I feel a little sentimental shame
Where's a hungry man gonna live at in this town
Oh, they're tearing the labor camps down
You're tearing the labor camps down
And I feel a little sentimental shame
Where's a hungry man gonna live at in this town
Oh, they're tearing the labor camps down