People Get Old

Someone said, "Youth is wasted on the young"

I spilled every last drop of time that summer in the sun

My daddy had a Timex watch

Cigarette in his hand and a mouthful of scotch

Spinnin' me around like a tilt-a-whirl on his arm

Houses need paint, winters bring snow

Kids, come on in before your supper gets cold

Collection plates and daddy's billfold

And that's how it goes

You live long enough, people get old

I sat up right beside him in the cabin of that truck

Goin' thirty miles-an-hour down a side road talkin' 'bout the fish we caught

And I'm older now than he was then

If I could go back in time, I would in a second

To his beat-up blue jeans and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off

Houses need paint, winters bring snow

Kids growin' up and seekin' out the window

Hittin' every small-town dirt road

And that's how it goes

You live long enough and people get old

Yeah, people get old

Daddy keeps busy in the aftenoons playin' cards by himself

And he shouldn't be shovelin' that first snow, but you know he won't take the help

Full of pride and love, he don't say too much but hell, he never did

And you still think he's forty-five and he still thinks that you're a kid

One day you'll find yourself sayin' the things that he said

You'll be walkin' down the hallway, turnin' off every light switch

When you twirl your kids in your arms

Before you know it, it won't take too long

They'll be runnin' off makin' a life just like you did

Houses need paint, winters bring snow

Nothin' says "love" like a band of gold

Babies grow up and houses get sold

And that's how it goes

Time is a thief, pain is a gift

The past is the past, it is what it is

Every line on your face tells a story somebody knows

That's just how it goes

You live long enough and the people you love get old