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Fourth of July at a Country Fair

by Georgia Yellow Hammers

on Peaches Down in Georgia (2015), Song of the Doodle Bug (2021)

On the Fourth of July at a Country Fair a man went up in a balloon
He was to go right up through the clouds and take a circle around the moon
But when he got up about ten miles high the gas in his balloon went out
As he came down without a parachute he was heard so very loud to shout:

"I ain't got no feather bed to land on when I fall
I may dive in the river, may land on the city hall
But the best of all that I'll ever land on would be a house up our street
Any old haystack that I land on will be home sweet home for me"

A tale I'll tell you of a tramp who never works the road
He never pays no railroad fare and does life as a joke
All the bar hoppin' of his life, his nose was painted red
"All I want is a friend's back door and a big hand out" he said

"I don't stop at no swell hotels, weather is nought to me
My boarding house is a big box car, my name's on the water tank
Gives to me a big saloon where the lunching is warm and free
Any old saloon that I can hang in would be a home sweet home for me"

My brother Hugh to the Texas went, breaks my heart to sing
Cowboys caught him dead to the right with his neighbor's horse one day
The village committee, well they caught him up, put a rope around his neck
Before they done that loop de loop my poor brother did say:

What'd he say

"I ain't got no bigger limb to hang on when I swing
You told me I could have my choice I only ask one thing
I'd like to be hung upon a gooseberry bush
You know what my fate would be
Any old limb that you hang me on'll be home sweet home for me"