Severance Pay

Severance Pay :
When I came to the Prince William Sound
The Glaciers were friends to me
Not one of them said I had to be home
or I couldn't have a drink
Sometime late in '63
Appetites finally grew near
How to get kicked off a pipeline crew
Get too drunk to feel fear

Winter was coming anyway seeming to last an age
Lived off of my severance pay from the old pipeline days
Did just fine out in the snow -- Jack was just a little help
You think six months of darkness easy, you just try it yourself

Woke up in time that early spring
To turn on the evening news
Could only sit dumb as Cronkite said
"Look what's gonna happen to you"
I was drunk when the shock wave hit
Said goodbye to Valdez
Nothing much there anyway
just the pipeline and me

Earth shook earth shook
Never meant nothing to me
Never meant anything