The first things I remember are frosty Carolina mornings
With a cheery fire crackling in my momma's big black wood cook stove
I remember snow flakes as big as goose feathers
And the moon the color of new made country butter
And a night sky like diamonds against black velvet
Reaching from horizon to horizon

I remember when the biggest problems in my barefoot life
Were sand spurs and red ant hills
I remember sitting with my grand daddy on the front porch
And watching the last of that magnificent southern sun
Bleed away into the twilight sky

I remember Sunday school and kneeling at the cross
And trying to imagine what God looked like
Sunday dinner short pants hair cuts and a little puppy
My daddy brought home to me and I remember love

I remember steam puffing fire breathing awesome 10 wheel locomotives
And the conductors watch looked
As big as one of my grand mothers biscuits
I remember my mother smiling in a red and white cherckered dress
And Christmas always seemed so far away
Yes I remember you Carolina grand old lady if the south
I remember you as home

One of the memories that stays on my mind
About an old southern lady that I left behind
Is a ramshackle bridge where the deep river winds
And an old two-lane blacktop through the tall long-leaf pines

Carolina, Carolina
You're hard, but you're hard to forget

I still remember the magnolia nights
And goosefeather snow flakes in the gray morning light
Sandspurs and puppies and red autumn leaves
And the warm lights in the clear night on a cold Christmas Eve

Carolina, Carolina
You're hard, but you're hard to forget

Carolina I knew you
Before the highways got to you
And I loved you as one of your own
And I still do

Carolina, Carolina
You're hard, but you're hard to forget
You're hard to forget