Route 23

Well I spent my whole life since I was 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, keep the old look to that mind
 Well the days they were long, but the money was good
 The only things that changed were the seasons and the shades of the hoods
 'Til the government came on the radio in late '55
 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 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 those steamrollers whined
 All those good folks left me and daddy
 And those two lanes behind
 With that new highway, no one stops here anymore
 And you can't make 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 the calendar on the wall still reads 19 and 75
 No one crossed out the day that my daddy died
 We laid him in the ground 'neath that old sycamore tree
 That shades a boarded up gas station out on Route 23
 With that new highway, no one stops here anymore
 And you can't make 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
 Yeah, the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again