Chatham County Line ROUTE 23 I spent my whole life since I was as 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 and keep the oil up to that line The days they were long but the money was good The only things that changed were the seasons and the shapes of the hoods ‘Til the Governor came on the radio in late ‘55 He 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 a 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 the steamrollers whined All those good folks left me and Daddy, and those two lanes behind. Now the calendar on the wall still reads 1975 No one crossed off the day that my Daddy died We laid him in the ground beneath that old Sycamore tree That shades a boarded up Gas station, out on Route 23