California Cottonfields Lyrics - Someday We'll Look Back - Merle Haggard

My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43 

When I was just a child in momma's arms 

My daddy plowed the ground and promised someday we would leave 

This run-down mortgaged Oklahoma farm 

Then one night I heard my daddy sayin' to my momma 

That he'd finally saved enough to go 

California was his dream, a paradise, for he had seen 

Pictures in magazines that told him so 

California cotton fields 

Where labor camps were filled with weary men with broken dreams 

California cotton fields 

As close to wealth as daddy ever came 

Nearly everything we had was sold or left behind 

From my daddy's plow to the soup that momma canned 

Some folks came to say farewell or see what all we had to sell 

Some just came to shake my daddy's hand 

That model A was loaded down and California bound 

A change of luck was just four days away 

But the only change that I remember seeing in my daddy 

Was when his dark hair turned to silver grey 

California cotton fields 

Where labor camps were filled with weary men with broken dreams 

California cotton fields 

As close to wealth as daddy ever came