Story Behind The Song
This is about my grandfather, as told by my father, who has 10 years old in 1932. It is most of all about quiet determination during a difficult time.
Song Description
A real American story depicting one farmer's story during the Great Depression. It is part of my own family's history.
| Song Length |
4:04 |
Genre |
Folk - Americana, Folk - Rural |
| Tempo |
Medium Slow (91 - 110) |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Worried, Heartbreaking |
Subject |
Determination, Will |
| Similar Artists |
James Keelaghan, Si Kahn |
Language |
English |
| Era |
1930 - 1939 |
| |
Lyrics
1932
© Charley Sandage
2012
In 1932, he was a young man
Though he never was a gambler, he was about to make a bet
But in 1932 the sky turned empty
The cards were stacked against him, he just couldn't read 'em yet
Some cotton land with a small house for his family
Cost a hundred dollars' rent, the banker said, "We'll bet on you"
His wife and kids went to the fields beside him
But the fields burned dry and prices fell in 1932
He meant to rise above sharecropping, step out on his own
He staked his family's future on a hundred dollar loan
But the sun came down like a strap laid 'cross his shoulders day by day
No sign of rain, the banker said, "There's nothing we can do"
He knelt by dried-up cotton stalks and knee-high corn to pray
"Am I burning in some judgment fire, this 1932?"
His cotton crop that fall brought 90 bucks
They made ten dollars more somehow, they did what they could do
He paid his debt and took no time for grieving
'Cause they had to leave before the end of 1932
He went back to sharecropping, he just had to carry on
But he never quite forgot that year and that hundred dollar loan
When the sun came down like a strap laid 'cross his shoulders day by day
When he heard the banker say "There's nothing we can do"
When he knelt by dried-up cotton stalks and knee-high corn to pray
"Can you take me out of this judgment fire, this 1932?"
By and by, in better times, he bought land of his own
But like ten thousand others, the hurt cut to the bone
Whenever he remembered what he pulled his family through
You see, a cotton field was the devil's dream in 1932
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