GENERATIONS OF CHANGE



1. My father was a ploughman in a wee place near Capely

He worked on the land all the days o' his life

By the time he made second he aye said he reckoned

he'd ploughed near on half o' the east nuke of Fife.



He'd feed on at Randerson, Crawhill and Camberton,

Campbell and Camby and Big Rennyhill

At Burnbrae he married, at Kirkton he's buried

But man had he lived, he'd be ploughin' on still



Ah but those days were his days, those ways were his ways

To follow the plow while his back was still strong

But those days are past, and the time come at last

When the weakness of age must give way to the young.



2. Well I was nae for ploughin', to the sea I was goin'

To follow the fish and the fisherman's ways

In rain, hail and sunshine, I watch the long run line

No man mere contented he's here working days.



I've long lined the dogger bank,

Pulled the great fish from the deep devil's hole.

I've sighted troal off Shetland, the Faros and Iceland

In weather much worse than a body could bold.



Ah but those days were my days, those ways were my ways

To follow the fish while my back was still strong

But those days are past, and the time come at last

For the weakness of age to make way for the young.



3. Now my sons they are grown, away they have flown

To search for black oil in the dark northern sea

Like oilman they walk and like Texans they talk (yankees?)

Aye, there's no much in common 'tween my sons and me.



They've rough rigged on Josephine, Forties and Linnean,

Claymore and Dunlen, the Fisher and Dock,

They've made fortunes for sure, for in one trip ashore

They spend more than I earned in a whole seasons work.



Ah but this day is there day, this way is there way

To ride the rough rigs while there backs are still strong

But their day will pass, and the time come at last

For the weakness of age to make way for the young.



(continued on next page)













page two, generations of change





4. Now my grandsons they're growing, to the school soon be goin'

But the long days of summer they'll spend here with me

We walk through the warm days and talk of the old days

Of the corn and the codfish, the land and the sea.



We'll walk through the fields that my father once tilled,

Talk to the old men who once sailed with me

Man it's been awfully good, I'm showing them all I could

Of the past and the present, what their future might be.



For the morn will be their day, what will be their way

What will they make o' the land, sea and sky?

Man, I've seen awfully change, but it still seems very strange

To look at the world through a young laddie's eyes.



(Man, I've seen naught but change, but .....)



from Ed Miller singing at FSGW program. learned 1985

by Archie Fisher

sung by Cila Fisher and Artie Trezeise

@Scots @work

filename[ GENCHANG

DC

===DOCUMENT BOUNDARY