Old And Only In The Way From Charlie Poole 
When you walk along the street, how often times you���ll meet Some poor old man who’s getting old and gray With age is back is bent, in his pockets not a cent And for shelter he has no place to stay 
His relations by the score, they’ll turn him from the door They’ll see him on the street and pass him by If you ask them why they do, they’ll turn and say to you "He is poor, he’s gray, he’s only in the way." 
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Now let us cheer them on, for they won’t be with us long Don’t quarrel with them because they’re old and gray Just remember while you’re young that to you old age will come When you’ll be old and gray, and only in the way. 
There was a time, I hear, when youth was not so queer But since that time there’s been an awful change Young men with strength and might to their parents they bring strife If it happens every day that’s nothing strange 
In shackles they did toil, their children they did spoil As sure for death ofttimes they do pray He and his faithful wife were toiling all their life To find they’re old and only in the way 
Now my message, I am sure, is for rich as well as poor Take a rich man when he’s growing old His relations ’round him stand, and take him by the hand They all want him to die, they want his gold 
Through life he did enjoy all the things that gold can buy But all his gold, his life it could not save After all he’s like the poor when his journey’s nearly o’er He finds he’s old and only in the way 
file from: www.traditionalmusic.co.uk 
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