Uncle Frank

They powered up the city with hydro-electric juice.

Now we got more electricity than we canever use.

They flooded out the hollow and all the folks down there moved out,

but they got paid so there ain’t nothin’ else to think about.

Some of them made their living cutting the timber down,

snaking it one log at a time up the hill and into town.

T.V.A. had a way to clear it off real fast.

Lots of men and machinary, build a dam and drown the rest.

Uncle Frank lived in a cabin down on Cedar Creek,

bought fifteen acres when he got back home from overseas.

Fifteen rocky acres, figured noone else would want,

'till all that backed up water had to have some place to go.

Uncle Frank couldn’t read or write

Never held down a job, or needed one in his life.

They assured him there’d be work for him in town building cars.

It’s already going down.

The cars never came to town and the roads never got built

and the price of all that power kept on going straight uphill

The banks around the hollow sold for lake-front property

where Doctors, Lawyers, and Musicians teach their kids to waterski.

Uncle Frank couldn’t read or write

so there was no note or letter found when he died.

Just a rope around his neck and the kitchen table turned on it’s side