When I was a boy, I had a spot where I would go
Down the road from our place just about a mile or so
It's up the draw and through the sage up to an old line shack
And a grey retired cowboy who we used to call Wild Jack

Jack's legs were bowed and ganted, and his bones were always sore
And to a boy of ten he must have been a hundred years or more
He'd tell me tales about when he had been a younger man
When the cattle still were wearing horns and the buffalo still ran

1st Chorus
He'd tell me how they pushed the herds up to the Musselshell
About the endless days of riding in the cold
Their horses were half broken and the cattle bent for hell
Those memories he cherished more than gold

He said he got his nickname from a time he went to town
And he woke up on a junk pile wearing someone's evening gown
Well he swears he don't recall a thing, and didn't want to know
But the boys all laughed and said "Wild Jack, you sure put on a show".

2nd Chorus
He lived his life on open range as far as  he could ride
His saddle was the only think he owned
His eyes would get all misty and sometimes I think he cried
When he talked about those days of long ago

Now Jack is gone and I'm a man with children of my own
And they like to hear the stories of the people I have known
About an old cowpuncher that I knew back as a kid
I hope I tell the stories half as well as he once did

3rd Chorus
I tell them how they pushed the herds up to the Musselshell
About the endless days of riding in the cold
Their horses were half broken and the cattle bent for hell
Those memories I cherish more than gold

When I was a boy, I had a spot where I would go
Down the road from our place just about a mile or so
It's up the draw and through the sage up to an old line shack
And a grey retired cowboy who we used to call Wild Jack