[Lyric] The Ballad of Handy Mackey (Larry Jon Wilson)

Me and friend on five notch road in 51' rode ponies makin' memories
We rode up to an old grey shack where Handy Mackey lived, he told us good things
He'd say a bird in hand is a bird for the pan
And silence can't be golden cus' I never learned me nothin from no quiet man
Handy said
Handy said

Handy won't you show me how to work the land to be my own man someday
You bent your back down all those years and you never looked to no man for your pay
But he said workin' the land won't make no man it ain't what you leave hеre
Cus' sowin and reapin' n layin' by n crop and choppin'll maybe gеt you by for one more year
Handy said

Then Handy won't you tell me one more good thing before I go back to the city?
Won't you tell me something I can use to grow up with and be a man like you?
And he'd say a penny saved is a penny burned
You'd better go on and spend em' son the world just may not be here 'time your next one's earned
Handy said

The old grey shack and Handy burned one night, the fire was cold 'fore they found him
The funeral in the cold n' few old friends and family preacher gathered 'round him
But i've remembered all those good things through the years, it brings me joy
And I know he's in a better place where everybody calls him man, not boy
I bet they call him man, not boy