Back about 1918 my father Ray Cash was in the army in France

Along about armistice day he was one of the proud men to stand inspection

By General John J Pershing

Less than a year later my dad was back on a cotton farm in Southwest Arkansas

And you know the way of life didn't change very fast back home

He rode a horse about ten miles every Sunday to see Miss Carrie Rivers

In those days when everyone in the country either rode a horse or wagon or walked

You were probably a stranger if you were five miles away from home or less maybe

Sometimes life was pretty tough so some of the people were tough too

That's why my dad had a Colt 45 stuck in his belt every Sunday

The first thing he always did was to lay his pistol on the mantle

Of the fireplace at grandpa Rivers

When my parents got married my mother Carrie Rivers was sixteen

After that it wasn't long till dady wasn't considered a stranger

So he made friends with most everybody around

Daddy tells about an Irish immigrant on a railroad where he worked

The cotton belt line whonever stopped talkin' about goin' back to Dublin

One of the first stories I ever remember my dad tellin'

Was one that the Irish immigrant told him

And according to that particular source of information

There's this boy named Daniel McKinney workin' in the fields one morning

And across the fields came his sweetheart Rosalee

She came crying with tears in her eyes

Later someone put down into a song some of the things that Rosalee told Daniel

She said Daniel there's a bloody war a ragin'

And I've come to tell you that they're wantin' you to fight

So fight for Ireland but come back to me Daniel I'll be witin'

Oh Danny Boy the pipes the pipes are calling

From glen to glen and down the mountain side

The summer's gone and all the roses falling

It's you it's you must go and I must bide

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow

Or when the valleys hushed and white with snow

I'll be here in sunshine or in shadows

I'll be here oh Danny Boy I miss you so

But if you fall as all the flowers are falling

And if you're dead as dead well you may be

I'll come and find the place where you are lying

And kneel and say and an Ave there for Thee

But come ye back...