Route 23 - Chatham County Line

Well I spent my whole life since I was high as a knee

By that two-lane blacktop they call Route 23

My daddy ran a service station

And the pumps they did shine

I’d watch him wash the windshields, keep the old look to that mind

Well the days they were long, but the money was good

The only things that changed were the seasons and the shapes of the moon

'Til the government came on the radio in late '55

Said the state’s gonna build a new highway

One that’s fast, smooth and wide

With that new highway, no one stops here anymore

And you can’t make living without swinging that door

The sign by the roadside still says «Come On In»

But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again

Now daddy was as stubborn as a mule in the snow

He said, «Good folks return to the places that they know»

But after the gravel arrived and those steamrollers whined

All those good folks left me and daddy

And those two lanes behind

With that new highway, no one stops here anymore

And you can’t make living without swinging that door

The sign by the roadside still says «Come On In»

But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again

Now the calendar on the wall still reads 19 and 75

No one crossed out the day that my daddy died

We laid him in the ground 'neath that old sycamore tree

That shades a boarded up gas station out on Route 23

With that new highway, no one stops here anymore

And you can’t make living without swinging that door

The sign by the roadside still says «Come On In»

But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again

Yeah, the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again