Homestead

I was born in the corn fields of Kentucky
 I moved north in '73
 The war was still going strong so I found a job
 Rolling steel in a foundry in Homestead
 I worked beside a guy named Gryzbowski
 Who taught me how to keep safe
 He said "there's many a man who lost the fingers from their hands"
 You could wind up crippled or dead in Homestead
 And the steel glowed in the white hot chambers
 The furnace spit fire and smoke
 And the sunlight came through the cracks in the roof
 The dust was so thick you could choke
 I heard all the old stories about the twelve hour shifts in the mill
 And the union brothers the Pinkertons tried hard to kill
 Heard about Frick and Carnegie the day the river ran red
 How the union caved in, in Homestead
 It was more than a job it was my family
 I got married, settled down, bought a home
 And in the bars down the street, in the late summer heat
 You never had to feel alone
 I got work tearin' those old mills down
 Until there's nothing left but the sweat and blood in the ground
 At night we tuck our little babies in bed
 We still pray to the red, white and blue in Homestead
 I'm still livin' in Homestead