Little Red Shoes

I was 11 months old

I was just starting to walk

And Daddy always kept a big stick behind the door just in case

Somebody was to come in that was drunk on moonshine,

You know, and Daddy had to do something about it

Anyway, this woman, we called her old Aunt Boyd,

She come in and she was telling

Mommy about her, uh, husband, she thinks is going out with this woman in

Paintsville

So she reared back with that big stick showing

Mommy how she was going to hit this woman in the head with it

And when she went back with it, she hit me in the head

And Mommy said I cried for 5 days

And she said I, that fifth night,

I had a great big knot that show up right in the middle of my forehead

And, you know, the only thing I remember,

I don't remember no pain, but I just remember Mommy

And Daddy carrying me in this old quilt that Mommy had made out of overhalls

The knots kept getting bigger and bigger so she took me to the doctor

And that stuff called mesitor, something like that

Mommy said it made both ears flat to my face and I ain't got very big ears

And told Mommy that I would, that I was going to die

And that happened like four times so I didn't walk till I was almost 5

It was... It was kind of a mess...

Oh I forgot about the shoes,

Well shoot, I hadn't... I'd never had a pair of shoes

And Mommy had went...

Took me to the hospital, you know, to see what that was...

If they couldn't do something

But they wouldn't keep me because Mommy and Daddy didn't have no money

They just tell 'em to take me home and let me die, you know,

Because there wasn't nothing they could do about

That kind of disease, I guess

And, um, Mommy told Daddy,

Says "Ted, you take her down the street, you carry her down the street..." and said,

"...let me try this store here," and Mommy went in and told them the story that I was dying,

That she had to carry me twelve miles to town

And twelve miles back and that I had no shoes

That place, I think it was Murphy's 5 and 10 and they're still there in Paintsville, Kentucky

And I think that they told Mommy that they wasn't in business to give shoes away

Mommy told Daddy, says, "Carry Loretta on down a little farther,"

Said, "and let me stop in another store..."

And Mommy went right back to the same store

When the guy's back was turned she stole these little red shoes

And I remember on the big'old bridge that went across the river

It went way up high and was...

I've always been scared of that bridge that took me across the big Sandy River

Mommy pulled them out from under that yellow jacket that she was wearing

And she was putting them red shoes on me

And I thought them was the prettiest things I ever saw in my life

And Daddy started crying

And I wondered why

And he said, "Clerie, we're not going to make it home,"

And Mommy put the shoes on me

And Daddy took off running and run all the way ahead t'Butcher Holler with me

And Mommy never had a chance to carry me any farther

And that's almost twelve miles that Daddy run with me

But Daddy knew that the cops was going to get us

He left Mommy standing and he took off in a dead run

I remember him running but I didn't know what for

And I remember asking Mommy,

"Mommy, why is Daddy running?"

I remember her hollering,

"To put your little red shoes away, honey, when you get home."

[Laughs]

Can you believe that?

So I wrote a song called "Put My Little Red Shoes Away,"

You know, they're my little red shoes and I don't want

'em to get... to be dirty...