Mama hated diesel so bad
I guess I knew it was something to do with Dad
The first time I seen her cry
Was after one of them things went by
Mama hated diesel so bad

I remember hearing those semi gearing down
My mom and me we used to live on the high-grade end of town
I sure like them wide freightliners
But there was something in Mama's eye
When she catch me watching the road
Lord a little bitty piece of her died

Mama hated diesel so bad
I guess I knew it was something to do with Dad
The first time I seen her cry
Was after one of them things went by
Mama hated diesel so bad

As the years passed and I grew older
Mama did too
Pretty soon she stopped singing and laughing
Why she'd hardly even eat.
And I began staying away from home on the weekdays
I wouldn't come home from school 'til way past dark
I was too busy having some kind of fun
Either messing around with some gal
Or hanging around the local truck stop
Talking to my buddies about all the big rigs
That all the time were rolling in
And talking about all the crazy places we never been
Like California
Oh one day the county sheriff come up to me
He said they found my mama wandering
All by herself in the middle of the highway crying
She was trying of all things Lord
To flag down one of those big old rigs with a pocket handkerchief
Well that left me on my own
I got a job unloading rigs at the local freight yard
Pretty soon I had a rig of my own
And I left my hometown on my very first run to Frisco
Well that was three years ago today
And I ain't been back home in all that time since then 'til now

Now it's me and the local preacher
Standing in the graveyard grass
Staring down at the highway
Watching those big boys pass
Well he laid his hand upon me
And he prayed for quite some time
But I could barely understand the words he said
Behind that highway's whine

Then he handed me a faded photograph
He said he found it in my mama's hand
He said "Son I'm afraid that you and this picture
Were the best your Mama ever had"
Well I looked down at that picture
It was Mama and some guy
Standing in front of a semi-truck
"Just Married" painted on the side.

Mama hated diesel so bad
I guess I knew it was something to do with Dad
The first time I seen her cry
Was after one of them things went by
Mama hated diesel so bad