 I was 11 months old, I was just starting to walk
And Daddy always kept a big stick behind the door
Just in case somebody was to come in that was drunk on moonshine,
You know, and Daddy had to do something about it.
Anyway, this woman, we called her old Aunt Boyd,
She come in and she was telling Mommy about her,
Uh, husband, she thinks is going out with this woman in
Paintsville
So she reared back with that big stick showing Mommy
How she was going to hit this woman in the head with it.
And when she went back with it, she hit me in the head
And Mommy said I cried for 5 days, and she said, I that fifth night,
I had a great big knot that show up right in the middle of my forehead
And, you know, the only thing I remember.
I don't remember no pain, but I just remember Mommy
And Daddy carrying me in this old quilt
That Mommy had made out of overhalls
The knots kept getting bigger and bigger
So she took me to the doctor
And that stuff called mesitor, something like that.
Mommy said it made both ears flat to my face
And I ain't got very big ears
And told Mommy that I would, that I was going to die
And that happened like four times so I didn't walk till I was almost 5.
It was, It was kind of a mess.
Oh I forgot about the shoes, Well shoot, I hadn't,
I'd never had a pair of shoes and Mommy had went,
Took me to the hospital, you know, to see what that was,
If they couldn't do something.
But they wouldn't keep me because Mommy and Daddy
Didn't have no money.
They just tell ‘em to take me home and let me die,
you know, because there wasn't nothing they could do
About that kind of disease, I guess and, um, Mommy told Daddy
Says “Ted, you take her down the street, you carry her down the street.”
And said, “Let me try this store here,” and Mommy went in
And told them the story that I was dying.
That she had to carry me twelve miles to town
And twelve miles back and that I had no shoes
That place, I think it was Murphy's 5 and 10
And they're still there in Paintsville, Kentucky
And I think that they told Mommy that they wasn't in
Business to give shoes away.
Mommy told Daddy, says, “Carry Loretta on down a little farther.”
Said, “And let me stop in another store.”
And Mommy went right back to the same store
When the guy's back was turned she stole these little red shoes.
And I remember on the big' old bridge that went across the river
It went way up high and was, I've always been scared of that bridge
That took me across the big Sandy River
Mommy pulled them out from under that yellow jacket
That she was wearing and she was putting them red shoes on me.
And I thought them was the prettiest things I ever saw in my life
And Daddy started crying and I wondered why
And he said, “Clerie, we're not going to make it home,”
And Mommy put the shoes on me.
And Daddy took off running and run all the way ahead
To Butcher Holler with me and Mommy never had a chance
To carry me any farther, and that's almost twelve miles
That Daddy run with me.
But Daddy knew that the cops was going to get us
He left Mommy standing and he took off in a dead run
I remember him running but I didn't know what for
And I remember asking Mommy, “Mommy, why is Daddy running?”
I remember her hollering, To put your little red shoes away,
Honey, when you get home.”
[Laughs]
Can you believe that?
So I wrote a song called “Put My Little Red Shoes Away,”
You know, they're my little red shoes
And I don't want ‘em to get, to be dirty...
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