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Quarter in a payphone
Drying laundry on the line
Watching Sun Tea in the window
Pocket watch for tellin' time
Seems like only yesterday I'd get a blank cassette
Record the country countdown 'cause I couldn't buy it yet
If we drove all the way to Dallas just to buy an Easter dress
We’d take along a Rand McNally, stand in line to pay for gas
God knows that shifting gears ain’t what it used to be
I learned to drive that 55 just like a queen, three on a tree
Hey, whatever happened to waitin' your turn
Doing it all by hand,
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
If you had something to say
You'd write it on a piece of paper
Then you'd put a stamp on it
And they'd get it three days later
Boys would call the girls
And girls would turn them down
Staying married was the only way to work your problems out
Hey, whatever happened to waitin' your turn
Doing it all by hand,
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Yeah
Automatic
(Push, push push rewind) 2x
Let's roll the windows down
Windows with the cranks
Come on let's take a picture
The kind you gotta shake
Hey, whatever happened to waitin' your turn
Doing it all by hand,
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Yeah
Automatic
Drying laundry on the line
Watching Sun Tea in the window
Pocket watch for tellin' time
Seems like only yesterday I'd get a blank cassette
Record the country countdown 'cause I couldn't buy it yet
We’d take along a Rand McNally, stand in line to pay for gas
God knows that shifting gears ain’t what it used to be
I learned to drive that 55 just like a queen, three on a tree
Doing it all by hand,
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
You'd write it on a piece of paper
Then you'd put a stamp on it
And they'd get it three days later
Boys would call the girls
And girls would turn them down
Staying married was the only way to work your problems out
Doing it all by hand,
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Yeah
Automatic
(Push, push push rewind) 2x
Windows with the cranks
Come on let's take a picture
The kind you gotta shake
Doing it all by hand,
'Cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seemed so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Song Info
Submitted by
abbielynn84 On Jun 19, 2014
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It's about how the way things were were better than the way things are. I still roll my windows down by cranking them and hang laundry on the clothesline. Unfortunately, there will always be some inventor who doesn't like the way we had it. Thomas Edison didn't like seeing people in the dark, so he invented the light bulb so people could see their way in the dark. He's probably rolling in his grave because of this song.
Also, those automatic things were created by hand, so what does that tell you?
This song reinforces every sterotype there is of country music fans as ignorant, delusional self-righteous old white folks.
Since when is driving 90 minutes into the city to buy a dress "doing it all by hand"? This lady is confusing her upper-middle class early 60's Dallas-Ft. Worth upbringing with pre-Civil War hard-scrabble subsistence living she can't possibly have any concept of. Get a clue lady, you grew up in post-Industrial corporate America just like all the rest of us. You're a professional musician. You don't put in the time to do your own makeup by hand, why would you presume to lecture anyone else?