I lived with the decent folks In the hills of old Vermont Where what you do all day Depends on what you want And I took up with a woman there Though I was still a kid And I smile like the sun To think of all the loving that we did She rose each morning and went off to work And she kept me with her pay I was making sweet love all night And playing this old guitar all day And I got apple cider and homemade bread That would make a man kneel down he would say grace And clean linens on our bed And a warm feet fire place Yankee lady so good to me Yankee lady just a memory Yankee lady so good to me Your memories gonna have to do for me An autumn walk on a old country road With a million flaming trees I was feeling a little uneasy Cause there was winter chill in the breeze And she said, "Oh Jesse, look over there I see birds are they are all southward bound Oh Jesse, I'm so afraid We are going to lose the love that we've found Yankee lady so good to me Yankee lady just a memory Yankee lady so good to me Your memories gonna have to do for me I don't know what called to me But I know that I plain had to go I left that little old Vermont town To live down in sunny Mexico And now when I can see myself As a stranger by my birth The Yankee lady's old memory To Remind me of my worth Yankee lady so good to me Yankee lady just a memory Yankee lady so good to me Your memories gonna have to do for me