Historical Folk Lyrics
"Johnny Cake - On The Road To California"

Come all girls, pay attention to my voice,
Don't you fall in love with the Kansas boys,
For if you do your fortune it will be
Hoe-cake, hominy, and sassafras tea.
They'll take you out on the jet black hill,
And they'll take you there much against your will,
Leave you there to perish on the plains,
For that is the way with the Kansas range.

CHORUS:
Oh, on the road to Californey
It was a hard and a tedious journey,
Far across the Rocky Mountains,
Crystal springs and flowing fountains.

When they go to meeting the clothes that they wear
Is an old brown coat all mixed and bare.
An old white hat small-rimmed and crowned,
And a pair of cotton socks that they wore the year around.
Some live in a cabin with a huge log wall
And a-nary a window in it at all,
A sandstone chimney and a punch board floor,
A clap board roof and a button-hole door.
When they go to milk they milk in a gourd
And they heave it in the corner and they cover it with a board.
Some get plenty and some get none
For that is the way with the Kansas run.

When they go a-fishin' they take along a worm
And they put it on a hook just to see it squirm.
The first thing they say when they get a bite Is,
"I got a fish as big as Johnny White."

When they go a-courtin' they take along a chair
And the first thing they say, "Has your daddy killed a bear?"
The second thing they say when they sit right down
Is, "Madam, your Johnny Cake is baking brown."