Letter in the Mail

If I could go down now
 While the whole town is sleeping
 See the sun creeping up on the hill
 I know the river and the railroad
 Would run through the valley still
 I guess it never was much to look at
 Just a one-horse town
 The kind of place young people want to leave today
 Store fronts pretty much boarded up
 Main Street pretty much closed down
 The church bell still rings on Sunday
 Old folks still go
 The young ones listen on the radio
 Saturday night nothing but a stray dog running wild
 Like nobody's child
 And little by little, light after light
 That's how it died
 They say you never go home again
 That's no lie
 Its like a letter in the mail
 To a brother in jail
 It's a matter of time
 Until you can do a little bit better time
 It used to be part of the heartland
 Awful proud and strong
 But deep, deep down peaceful and serene
 When people used to talk about the country
 That's what they used to mean
 I might go down come the weekend
 Go on my own
 Drop off Annie and the baby
 Maybe drive alone
 Pay my last respects to a time
 That has all but gone
 We said, Mama come look at the mountain
 Fire in the sky
 It's lit up like the Fourth of July
 The mill burning down
 The jobs leaving town
 The trains rolling by
 And little by little, light after light
 That's how it died
 They say you never go home again
 That's no lie
 It's just a letter in the mail
 To a brother in jail
 It's a matter of time
 Until you can do a little bit better time