If Gadsden native Jim Connor hadn’t bothered to clean out a guitar case before selling it, his classic song “Grandma’s Feather Bed,” made popular by John Denver, never would have been recorded.
Connor, 73, who lives on Sand Mountain, said the song began as a letter that was a poem to his grandmother, who operated a boarding house in the Woodlawn area of Birmingham. As a child, Connor would visit there, spending time with his eight cousins. Personally, I’m very thankful for this song. This tune takes me back to my childhood. We sang it in chorus and my aunt would play it every Christmas, the whole family would chime in.
(Source)
Lyrics for “Grandma’s Feather Bed”
When I was a little bitty boy
Just up off-a floor
We used to go down to Grandma’s house
Every month end or so
We had chicken pie and country ham
And homemade butter on the bread
But the best darn thing about Grandma’s house
Was her great big feather bed
It was nine feet high and six feet wide
Soft as a downy chick
It was made from the feathers of forty ‘leven geese
Took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick
It’d hold eight kids, four hound dogs
And a piggy we stole from the shed
We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun
On Grandma’s feather bed
After the supper we’d sit around the fire
The old folks’d spit and chew
Pa would talk about the farm and the war
And Granny’d sing a ballad or two
I’d sit and listen and watch the fire
the middle of the old feather bed
It was nine feet high and six feet wide
Soft as a downy chick
It was made from the feathers of forty’leven geese
Took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick
It’d hold eight kids, four hound dogs
And a piggy we stole from the shed
We didn’t get much sleep but we had a lot of fun
On Grandma’s feather bed
Well I love my Ma, an’ I love my Pa
Love Granny and Grandpa too
Been fishing with my uncle, I wrestled with my cousin
I even kissed Aunt Lou oooh
But if ever had to make a choice
I guess it ought to be said
That I’d trade them all plus the gal down the road
For Grandma’s feather bed
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