I used to go down to the Mill Creek   When I was only nine or ten   I’d run trot lines in the muddy water   Watch the leaves riding the wind      It was there I smoked my first Marlboro   It was there I kissed Laurie Jones   I’d lie in the tall grass for hours   Walk in the shallows, I’d skim those stones      One day I was climbing in the railroad trestle   I heard the sound of a coming train   Man it was on me like a rolling thunder   Lit a fire inside I can’t explain      Sent me running, sent me screaming   Like a wild man through the tall grass   Trying to make it back home      It was then I ran into that stranger   With his suitcase and his walking cane   He put his hand on my little shoulder   Since that day I ain’t been the same      Sends me running, sends me screaming   Down a freeway, down a runway   Trying to make it back home      And here I stand in this darkened hallway   My babies sleeping soft and low   I feel his hand on my shoulder   Like that day down at the Mill Creek long ago