Big thank you to Pricilla Herdman for sending me the extra lyrics.
I look at these old letters and postcards from the places where you’ve been
From the towns you’d find on the railway lines and the dirty backroom jails that you’d been in;
And the whispers of the people in the town when you’d been here and they knew
Yes, I remember all these things, but mostly, I remember loving you
I look at my brown suitcase and think of all the places that I’ve been
The railroad yards and the prison guards, all the dumpy little towns along the stem
And the whispering of the people, as they watch every move that I go through
I remember all these things, mostly I remember loving you
Chorus:
I remember loving you, back when the world was new
And I think you loved me too. I remember loving you
Ah, the buckskins smell that I knew so well when you’d hold me in your arms all in the rain
The night you came from a west bound freight, You were passing through and you said you couldn’t stay
Just an hour we shared and you said you cared and you’d come again the next time you were through
Yes, I remember all these things, but mostly, I remember loving you
The buckskins smell so the people tell as we huddled in the boxcar in the rain
The flashing lights that cut the night, the railroad bulls that pulled us off the train
When the norther’ blows and the winter’s cold and I’m huddled in the corner ‘til I’m blue
I remember all these things, mostly, I remember loving you
Chorus:
When the northern blows and I’m lying cold in my bed and I can’t sleep for thoughts of you
And you’re out somewhere in a jungle camp or a boxcar where you’re freezing ‘til you’re blue
I’m close by your side everywhere you ride and you’re with me in everything I do
Yes, I remember all these things, but mostly, I remember loving you
The winter streets where the frozen sleet comes soaking through the cardboard in my shoes
Where the promised land might be a place where a man could find free cigarettes and booze;
The alleyways full of ragged strays, the doorway wine I tell my troubles to
I remember all these things, mostly, I remember loving you
Chorus:
Another version by Garrison Keillor.
Haven’t been able to track down his lyrics.