My Washington Women - Kenny Rogers, The First Edition

The wages of an unskilled working man never paid enough

From time to time the nickel race keeps him from giving up

The blue collared man in Seattle never lives on white collared street

But there was food on the table for my Washington woman and me

The work slowed down and then one day the foreman laid me off

That night in a tavern down to my last dime I met a girl from Arkansas

Her daddy was a banker in Little Rock, she had a mansion on white collared

street

The next morning my Washington woman woke up without me

From city to city and state to state I grew heavier with shame

My Washington woman had six months left before our child would bring her pain

My Arkansas woman hurt me as we crossed the Arkansas line

But the arms of Seattle were the arms that kept huggin' my mind

For years I’ve basked in expensive wines, taste cheaper every day

I gave up all the things I loved for all these things I hate

And locked up all of her forgiveness the day I set myself free

And the heart of my Washington woman stopped beating for me

My Washington woman sends me a letter every once in a while

Inside a folded wordless page is a picture of my child

All at once the room grows cold with a feeling of jealousy

And there’s a silence between my Arkansas woman and me