Memorial Day, 1968

Lyrics and Music by Nate Hegyi

Here’s a story ’bout a town where the girls all lost their papas in Vietnam and their mothers cry on Memorial Day

Where they grew up tall and they grew up fast, fed on a hatred of Mao Zedong and the communists and the Beatles too

Where they married their heroes and the rodeo stars and the back-alley fighters with their real fast cars, and they prayed, O Lord they prayed

They cried on Memorial Day, 1968
All the girls of Vietnam
They held their hands together as the church burned down
All the girls of Vietnam

Lacie bought some brand new clothes at a double-wide supersized Target store, making love in a beige Hanes bra

And her husband said, “Won’t you do it like that, missionary, throw your hair back,” moan softly into his shoulder

And they prayed, O Lord they prayed

White flares burning danced across the water, soldier writes to his daughter. He’s fighting for the flag upon his shoulder, not for Johnson, Nixon or Ford

Bombs burst in the air on the Fourth of July, send the boys back bleeding to the jungle, and their wives, their ladies, their honey bees, well they just don’t understand

They cried on Memorial Day, 1968
All the girls of Vietnam
They held their hands together as the church burned down
All the girls of Vietnam