Текст песни Christmas As I Knew It - Mono Version - Johnny Cash

One day near Christmas, when I was just a child
Mama called us together, mama tried to smile
She said, "You know, the cotton crop hasn't been too good this year
There's no spending money and... Well, at least we're all here"
"I hope you won't expect a lot of Christmas presents
Just be thankful that there is plenty to eat
That's a quite of lesson
Though make things a little more pleasant"
And us kids got to thinking how really blessed we were
At least we were all healthy and best of all - we had her
Roy cut down a pig apple tree and we drug it home, Jack and me
Daddy killed a squirrel and Louise made the bread
Reba decorated the tree with popcorn strings before we went to bed
Mama and daddy sacrificed because this Christmas was lean but
After all there was the babies Tom and Joanne
And babies need a few things
I whittled a whistle for my brother Jack
And we though now and then
When I gave Jack that whistle
He knew I thought the world of him
Mama made the girl's dresses out of flower sacks
And when she ironed them down
You couldn't tell that they hadn't come from town
A sharecropper family across the road didn't have it as good as us
They didn't even have a light, and it was way past dusk
And mama said, "Well I bet they don't even have coal oil
Or a beans to boil, let alone apples, oranges and such"
Me and Jack took a jar of coal oil and some hickernuts we'd found
We walked off to the sharecropper's porch and set 'em down
A poor old ragged lady eased open the door
She picked up the coal oil and hickernuts and said
"I sure do thank you" and quickly closed the door
We started back home, me and Jack
And about halfway we stopped and looked back
And in the sharecropper's window at last was a light
So for one of the neighbors and for us it was a good Christmas night
Christmas came and Christmas went
Christmas that year was heaven sent
And daddy put on his gum boots
Waited to the thaw
Back home in Dyess Arkansas