[Lyric] My Daddy Always Taught Me to Share (Original Broadway Cast of "Grind")

(LEROY has brought a carton of ribs for the CHORUS GIRLS and SATIN.)

[LEROY]
Hard times?

You callin' these hard times?

Ladies, this is a time of ease
Hard times was livin’ where no one
Never got up off their knees

A little starvin' here
A little carvin' there
’Til they'd cart you off in little bitty bits

But if you went up North
A little country boy
Could get some gravy on his grits

And that's just what I have found
So I'm spreadin' that gravy around!
(The GIRLS exchange grins. They've heard it all before.)

When you come from a tar paper shack
You learn that life ain't gonna be fair
So them that's got a lot
Oughta offer what they got
Oh, my daddy always taught me to share

That’s why I’m trav'lin’ on the right track
My meals and all my dealin's are square
Take anything I own
It's a gift, it's not a loan!
’Cause my daddy always taught me to share

We never had no fence with pickets
But what he taught us got us through
No one got ringworm
No rickets
Unless the rest of us children got to get some, too!

Oooh!

It's a natural fac'
A child brought up carin' will care
I risk my life and limb
To send money home to him
And that's why my daddy taught me to share
Thank the Lord you little city girls never had to worry 'bout anything like that!

You share your food
You share your clo's
You share your bed with all your kin
And you're so glad
When that givin' goes
You grow up and find
You wanna share your bed again!

(The other GIRLS laugh at the new chorus girl, LINETTE's, shock.)

I'm tellin' all you mother's daughters
Come help yourself for free
I'm castin' my bread
On your waters
Let a little bread puddin' come a-floatin' back to me

(During the following, he grabs RUBY's hand, pulling her into an exuberant dance, then LINETTE, then SATIN - until all are caught up in the rhythm.)

So come and take the shirt off my back
Then take the rest 'til I'm bare
Go on and grab a bite
I ain't puttin' up a fight
Take whatever's lookin' good
Givin' like I should
There's always plenty to spare
Ain't ya lucky
That my daddy
Taught me
To share!