Numbers on the Cars

Stopped by that house on Nesbitt Lake
He's sittin' in his easy chair
Watchin' a Sunday evenin' race
Tells me my grandma's in the other room
Guess he forgot we laid her down
It'll be a year come June

Then he mumbles about Vietnam
He don't know who the hell I am
But the drivers, well, he tells me who they are
I guess he still knows the numbers on the cars

Try to get him out like we used to
But now I load the truck and I drive the boat
'Cause there ain't much he can do, nah
Cast him a line and watched it as it sank
Thinkin' how we used to talk for hours
Now he just stares at the bank

He used to know every stop in this fishin' hole
Though he probably thinks that we're in Mexico
But he knows his way around that boat
Even in the dark
And he still knows the numbers on the cars

Well no, he ain't all there
But I don't care
My mind still full of memories with him
And he may not know
All the words to the songs
But he still knows Merle Haggard's voice when he hears it

I stopped by that house on Nesbitt Lake
With a couple of tickets
To go see the Sunday evenin' race
As we watched those cars fly around the track
I asked the Lord if just one more time
He'd bring my old friend back

Then somewhere around lap twenty-three
That old man turned and smiled at me and
For a moment I know he knows where we are
And he still knows the numbers
Yeah, he still knows the numbers
He still knows the numbers
Numbers on the cars
Yeah, he still knows the numbers