| You know most people look through their wallets or their pocketbooks
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| And way down at the bottom Past the credit cards and baby pictures, greenstamps,
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| you usually find a little old dog eared piece poetry
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| I was cleaning out my wallet the other day and I ran across a whole bunch of I.
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| O.U.'s some of them thirty years overdue. |
| Funny thing is that all these I.O.U.
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| 's are owed to one person, and I kinda feel like right now might be a pretty
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| good time for an accounting
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| Mom, you listenin?
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| Mom, I owe you for so many things, a lot of services, like night watchman for
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| instance, for lying awake nights listening for coughs, cries, creaking
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| floorboards and me coming in too late. |
| You had the eye of an eagle,
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| the roar of a lion, but you always had a heart as big as a house
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| I owe you for services as a short order cook, chef, baker, for making sirloin
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| out of hamburger, turkey out of tuna fish and two big ol' strapping boys out of
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| leftovers
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| I owe you for cleaning services, for the daily scrubbing of face and ears all
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| work done by hand and for the frequent dusting of a small boys pants to try to
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| make sure that he led a spotless life and for washing and ironing,
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| no laundry could ever do. |
| For drying the tears of childhood and for Ironing
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| out the problems of growing up
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| I owe you for servics as a bodyguard, for protecting me from the terrors of
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| thunderstorms and nightmares ha, and too many green apples
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| And Lord knows I owe you for medical attention, for nursing me through measles,
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| mumps, bruises, bumps, splinters and spring fever
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| And let’s not forget medical advise either, Oh, no
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| Important things like ha ha, don’t scratching it or it won’t get well
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| If you cross your eyes they’re gonna stick like that And probably ah,
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| most Important of all was, be sure you got on clean underwear boy,
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| in case you’re in an accident
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| And I owe you for veterinarian services, for feeding every lost dog that I
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| dragged home at the end of the rope and for healing the pains of puppy love
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| And I owe you for entertainment, entertainment that kept the household going
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| during some pretty tough times, for wonderful productions at Christmas,
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| 4th of July and birthdays, and for making make believe come true on a very
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| limited budget
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| I owe you for construction work, for building kites, confidence,
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| hopes and dreams and somehow you made em all touch the sky
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| And for cementing a family together so it would stand the worst kinds of shocks
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| and blows and for laying down a good strong foundation to build a life on
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| I owe you for carrying charges, for carrying me on your books for the
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| necessities of life that a growing boy just gotta have. |
| Things like, a oh,
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| a pair of high top boots with a little pocket on the side for a jackknife
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| And one thing, Mom, I will never ever forget when there were two pieces of
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| apple pie left and three hungry people I noticed that you were the one who
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| suddenly decided that you really didn’t like apple pie in the 1st place
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| These are just a very few of the things for which payment is long overdue,
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| the person I owe em to worked very cheap
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| She managed by simply doing without a whole lotta things that she needed herself
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| My I.O.U.'s add up to much more than I could ever hope to repay
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| But you know the nicest thing about it all is that, I know that she’ll mark the
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| entire bill paid in full for just one kiss and four little words
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| Mom, I love you |