loading coal

my pappy said when i was seventeen you're six feet tall and your face is clean

and it don't look right for a boy that old to not make a livin' loadin' coal

loadin' coal loadin' coal i'm a double first cousin to a dad blamed mole

never get rich for to save my soul and forty 'leven years a loadin' coal loadin' coal

ain't never got acquainted with a dollar bill and i don't ever reckon that i ever will

a dollar ain't made for a fellar i'm told that scoops up a livin' loadin' coal

loadin' coal loadin' coal. i cussed everything in the mining camp from a shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp

but i know mighty well till i grow old i'll still be a cussin' but loadin' coal

loadin' coal loadin' coal. i know just as well as coal is black one of these days the mines were strike

and i'll sit around starvin' till i'm finally told

there's a nickel more a ton for loadin' coal

loadin' coal loadin' coal.