Uploaded January 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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"Ways Of The World" by Mary Gauthier
Album: Dixie Kitchen (1996)
marygauthier.com

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LYRICS
When I was a kid I was a hard headed pig tailed tomboy I made mama crazy cause I wouldn’t wear dresses and bows
I played with boys and I liked tackle football
I shot snakes with my brother down at the fishing hole

I’d fantasize I was Evil Kineval
I built ramps jumped garbage cans broke my wrist bone
Picked blackberries in the summer reaching right thru snake spit
Mama said girl slow down you’re accident prone

The best part of those days is I was carefree
Nobody telling me to act more like a girl
When you’re 10 years old it’s cute to be a tomboy
But in a couple of years you gotta deal with the ways of the world

In the summer I’d cut grass to make a few bucks
I worked for Mr. Jones for years he called me son
I’d take his money and I’d say thank you kindly
He thought I was a boy I didn’t tell him I wasn’t one

Then came the time there was no getting out of it
They made me wear a dress to a wedding I was in
My brother laughed at my dress and I punched his lights out
The day was ruined and mama said never again

I saved up fifty dollars and bought a dirt bike
It lasted three days till mama took a heart attack
I never shoulda popped that wheelie with mama watching
I scared her half to death, she made me bring the damn thing back