I was three years old sitting in the seat of a Greyhound bus My brother and me, Mama's tears falling like a Carolina rain Cause she pulled out a gun the night before Said he ain't gonna drink and hit me no more She pulled the trigger on my father in a moment's rain Thank God that gun wasn't loaded Didn't know where to go or how she'd survive Didn't care, anywhere but there that night Now she held her babies tight And we rode through the cold of the midnight blue She was scared, she was broke But all she knew was she was gonna do What she had to She got her a job in a trailer out west It wasn't much but she was doing her best Putting food on the table for her family But then one day I came home from school My Mama was crying alone in her room She said, I lost my job and we're gonna lose the trailer too And she got that volkswagon loaded Didn't know where to go or how she'd survive Didn't care, anywhere but there that night She held her babies tight And we rode through the cold of the midnight blue She was scared, she was broke But all she knew was she was gonna do What she had to Whenever things go wrong in my life I just think of her, what it took that night To get on that bus in a Carolina rain Didn't know where to go or how she'd survive Didn't care, anywhere but there that night She held her babies tight (She held her babies tight) And we rode through the cold of the midnight blue She was scared, she was broke But all she knew was she was gonna do What she had to What she had to (what she had to) Yeah, yeah, ooooh, what she had to What she had to