by Nanci Griffith



He owned a hotel on Jersey shore

She made her living seeing the sailors door to door

He was a small Hawaiian with a crooked smile

But he made her eyes light up like the heavens on the Fourth of July



She ran the numbers, they say she ran them clean

Those porcelain hands keep a ledger even in her sleeves

While he worked the See-Bees in the Phillipines

They say she made more money than you and I will ever see



Chorus:

Cause love was a magnet on the Jersey shore

If you were looking for love boys, you could have found it in '44

Cause love wore a halo back before the war

When the men loved the women

And the women knew what men were for



It was in the winter when he came home

And he had to hold those porcelain hands just to keep her warm

So they had a daughter, her name was Stephanie Anne

They sent her off to Vasser to find herself a family man



She sold the hotel; it belongs to me

And I watch those sailors come and go by the waves in the sea

From the poor chaps in the honeymoon suite

And I hear them fishing their lives away in the Florida Keys