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The Ballad of Gordy Quist

My family came from the Swedish soil
Seven brothers and four generations ago
They settled in a midwest town
Found some land and laid seed down

At the age of twelfe on the family farm
Granddad milked the cows at dawn
His daddy said, "You gotta use your hands
Know right from wrong, and love your land"

He grew up strong and got his school paid for
Playing football until the second-world war
Then he went to fight for Uncle Sam
'Cause he knew what was right, and he loved his land

When the war was done he returned a bit harder
Had to quit school to help on the farm
So he milked the cows, and he plowed the ground
Married my grandma and laid seed down

He raised 5 kids with weathered hands
The oldest of them is my old man
They grew up on the same dairy farm
Playing football, and hockey, and they woke up at dawn

The kids rode the bus to school everyday
Passed by the fields and smelled like hey
One day a kid by the window cried
"Ain't that your daddy's car there on its side"

What my dad saw then I just can't forget
It was the family car in a roadside ditch
There's something wrong when a father's son
Has to see him die in his mother's arms

But he grew up strong, just got a little harder
Took that farm just a little bit farther
He joined the Navy and he raised a family
'Cause he knew what was right and he loved his land

I never got to meet my granddad
But I know his story and I'll tell it sad
Now I've got his name and i wear it proud
As I walk this fields that no man's plowed