I wish Art Thieme were still around, so he could tell us more about this song. Anybody know who Don Lange is/was? Here's what Art had to say back in 1999. We miss you, Art.

Thread #9357   Message #60408
Posted By: Art Thieme
26-Feb-99 - 10:32 AM
Thread Name: Politics and Social Justice Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: HERE'S TO YOU ROUNDERS (Don Lange)^^^

just a bit askew from your actual topic would be a fine song by Don Lange, still a fine singer but now making exceptional wine out in Oregon, called "Here's To You Rounders". Don allowed me to record it on my first LP for Kicking Mule,(KM-150), __Outright Boldfaced Lies__, even before he did that himself. Priscilla Herdman did it later and several others that don't come to mind right away. Don's version was on Flying Fish.

Chorus) Here's to you rounders and here's to you railroad bums,
Hopin' that you make it home soon,
And yhere's to the women who married for love,
And lived with the man in the moon.

I never knew my grandad, he was always on the bum,
Every September he'd grab him a southbound and he'd ride,
Then along about Christmas me and my brother, we would get a few coins in the mail,
But we couldn't spend 'em, it was all he could send, from the Mexico City jail.

Back in the '30s, when the going got tough, old grandad , he hit the road,
Mother was young then and only remembers his name,
Then granny got work in the old canning factory and she took in some wash on the side,
She promised herself that she'd never forgive him, a promise she kept 'til she died.

One time near the end he rolled into town, he was riding the Greyhound line,
I guess he got old and those boxcars got harder to climb,
He dropped his last dime in a call to my granny, but "NO" was her only reply,
She hung up the phone, and she cussed him in German but I saw the pain in her eyes.

I never knew my grandad, he was always on the bum,
The Salvation Army, they wrote us a note when he died,
Now me and my brother, we carry the memory of a face we never did see,
Like some foreign coin layin' cold in the pocket of a young boy's dirty blue jeans.

Social justice, huh? Art

Here's the Don Lange recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIO6svDFsJk

Ed Trickett / Bok-Muir-Trickett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0iiyUGiJRo