The Thirty Foot Trailer - The Dubliners

The old ways are changing, you cannot deny

The day of the traveler is over

There’s nowhere to go and there’s nowhere to bide

So farewell to the life of the rover

Goodbye to the tent and the old caravan

To the tinker, the gypsy, the traveling man

And goodbye to the thirty foot trailer

Farewell to the can’t and the Romany tongue

Farewell to the Romany talking

The buying and the selling, the old fortune telling

The knock on the door and the hawking

Farewell to the besoms of heather and bloom

Farewell to the creels and the basket

The folks of today, they would far sooner pay

For a thing that’s been made out of plastic

The old ways are passing and soon will be gone

For progress is aye a big factor

It’s sent to afflict us and when they evict us

They’ll tow us away with a tractor

Farewell to the pony, the cob, and the mare

The reins and the harness are idle

You don’t need a strap when you’re breaking up scrap

So farewell to the bit and the bridle

Farewell to the fields where we’ve sweated and toiled

At pullin' and crownin' and liftin'

They’ll soon have machines and the traveling queens

And their menfolk had better be shiftin'

You’ve got to move fast to keep up with the times

For these days a man cannot dander

There’s a bylaw to say you must be on your way

And another to say you can’t wander