My driftin' memory goes back to the spring of '43
When I was just a child in Mama's arms
My daddy plowed the ground and prayed
Someday we would be
Less rundown than this Oklahoma farm

Then one night I heard my daddy saying to my mama
"We finally saved enough for us to go"
California was his dream
Every dime book he had seen
Pictures in magazines had told him so

California Cotton Fields
Where labor camps were filled with worried men
With broken dreams
California Cotton Fields
Was as close to wealth as Daddy ever came

Almost everything we had was sold or left behind
From Daddy's smile to the fruit that Mama canned
Some folks came to say farewell
And see what all we had to sell
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand

Our Model A was loaded down and California bound
And a change of luck was just four days away
But the only change that I remember
Seein' for my daddy
Was when his dark hair turned to silver grey

California Cotton Fields
Where labor camps were filled with worried men
With broken dreams
California Cotton Fields
Was as close to wealth as Daddy ever came

California Cotton Fields
Where labor camps were filled with worried men
With broken dreams
California Cotton Fields
Was as close to wealth as Daddy ever came