Boulder

It's much warmer these days, don't know what happened to spring
We're all perspiring but there's something chilly in my veins
Here I am in California, thinking of Boulder again

She left Sacramento in '52, her daddy got a job back at CU
And he bought a house of Fifth and Arapahoe
I was eighteen, such a reckless child, and those hazel eyes just drove me wild
So I kept my promise to follow her where she'd go
I got a job down in the mine, smutched my fingers trying to make hers shine
On New Year's Eve I held her tight, asked her to be my heart and life
On the first of '53 her daddy said no
Sent her off to Massachusetts, some women's school
Later that year the coal mine blew
So I went back to family in Sacramento

The night before we said goodbye I swore to wait and she swore to try
And we made love on the old Chautauqua Green
I got her letters and she got mine, twice a week then one at a time
There was nothing longer than the days between
She wrote of professors, friends, the Harvard mixer ball
Summer came and I needed work, I couldn't visit her at all
Then I got a letter in '55, it killed me to read
"He'll never take your place in my heart but this can never be
"Sending love from coast to coast is only fantasy
"But we'll always have Boulder, September '53"

She got married, had a kid and died between June '57 and May '65
And I still got that ring in my billfold
I never wed, though I had the chance, but I learned guitar and I learned to dance
And a fella gets enough to satisfy his soul
But here in Angels City, summertime lasts half the year
And it's never more than sixty in the memories I hold dear
And she used to tell me that she'd hate getting old
So each summer night when I close my eyes, pray when I go my soul survives
And we'll together face the cold