Words & Music by Ed Bruce





I wish I'd known the man a little better

That turned my mama on

He must have been a heck of a man

'Cause mama was a lady, don't you know



Mama was no prude, but she was proper

Never wore her dress too short

She didn't care if I did, but she'd have never taken a drink

Grandma Kate did the best she could to see mama grew up right

So she'd be fittin' one day for courtin'

And to wear some gentleman's ring



- Chorus -

I wish I'd known the man a little better

That turned my mama on

They say he was always laughing and sang a right nice song

I wish I'd known the man a little better

That turned my mama on

He must have been a heck of a man

'Cause mama was a lady, don't you know



I hear he came to town one day in a rusty old '49 Ford

Selling ladies shoes and assorted greeting cards

He was killin' good-lookin' and easy to like

And turnin' all the ladies heads

But he saw mama first and you've heard stories

'Bout how some of them travelin' men are



(Repeat Chorus)



Mama seemed to forget the things that Grandma Kate had always told her

She ran away one night with that travelin' man

hey bought gas at Reba's truck stop and drove to DeSoto County

But he brought her home next day, a lady, with a ring upon her hand



Mama told me how the fever took him when I was barely five

But I can remember him pitchin' me up and catchin' me

And I love to sit and listen to her tell me about my Daddy

She says he thought the sun must surely rise and set in me



(Repeat Chorus)