The Boy Who Never Saw a Train

The trains don’t go to Crawfordville
It’s too far off the track
And Elmer Stout’s old Model T
Barely made it there and back
But Tom Mix, the silent movie star
Drove his Packard up the lane
To have his photograph
     Taken with the boy
     Who never saw a train

The boy who’d seen a calf being born          And corn stalks break the ground
He’d seen the skies                                               through farming boy’s eyes
But he’d never been too far from town
The movie crew had seen everything
From California to Maine
They slapped their legs, so amazed
     That they had found a boy
     Who never saw a train

When the movie cameras began to roll   
The kids all gathered round
Not since President Harding
Had such a big deal come to town
But the silent movie cowboy star
Drove his Packard up the lane
To have his photograph
     Taken with the boy
     Who never saw a train

On a wall somewhere in Hollywood
While the years roll silent past                   
There hangs a photograph
Behind a dusty glass
Standing next to a movie star
Stares a child so plain
Eyes filled with wonder
     He’ll always be the boy                       
     Who never saw a train

Now the train never came to Crawfordville
And the Model T won’t pass that way again
But Tom Mix had his photograph                     Taken with the boy                           
     Who never saw a train
     He’ll always be the boy
     Who never saw a train (x2)

 © 2006 Phillip Bimstein