Willie & Laura Mae Jones Were our neighbours a long time back They lived right down the road from us In a shack just like our shack
The people worked the land together And we learned to count on each other When you live off the land You don't have the time to think about another man's colour
The cotton was high and the corn was growing fine But that was another place and another time
Sit out on the front porch In the evening when the sun went down Willie would play and the kids would sing And everybody would mess around Daddy'd bring out his guitar And play on through the night Every now and then ol' Willie would grin and say "Hey, you play all right" Made me feel so good
I remember the best times of all When Saturday came around
We all would stop by Willie's house and say "Do y'all need anything from town?" He'd say "No, but why don't y'all stop on the way back through? And I'll get Laura Mae, yeah, to cook up some barbecue" And you know that's good
The cotton was high and the corn was growing fine, yes it was But that was another place and another time
Oh, the years rolled past the land And took back what they'd given We all knew we had to move If we were gonna make a living
So we all moved off And went about our separate ways It sure was hard to say goodbye To Willie and Laura Mae (Jones), oh yeah
The cotton was high and the corn was growing fine, yes it was But that was another place and another time I remember so well The cotton looked so fine But that was another place and another time And it felt so good, yes it did