Hitch in Hell

The words of a CCC Song which is a version of the poem "I've done my hitch in hell", which is normally a US military poem. This recorder of the song indicates the poem is to be sung to the tune of a cowboy song called "When the Work's All Done This Fall".

___________

Hitch in Hell

___________

When the Work's all done this fall

________

1.

I'm sitting here an thinking of the things I left behind.

I hate to put on paper what is running through my mind.

We've dug a million ditches and cleared ten miles of ground

And a meaner place this side of hell is waiting to be found

But there is one consolidation, gather closely while I tell

When we die we'll go to heaven for we've done our hitch in hell

________

2.

We've built a million kitchens for the cooks to stew our beans

We've stood a million guard mounts and cleaned the camp latrines

Ah the number of trees that we fell is very hard to tell

But there'll be no trees in heaven for we've chopped our trees in hell.

________

3.

We've built a million bridges and walked through miles of mud

We've cleaned a million mess kits and peeled a million spuds

We've shoveled tons of gravel, a million rocks we've lugged

But there'll be no rocks in heaven, for we've lugged our rocks in hell.

________

4.

We've killed a million ants and bugs that sneaked in for our eats

We've shook a million bed bugs from our dirty sheets

An the number of nights we've frozen as low the mercury fell

But we'll not freezein heaven cause we've done our hitch in hell.

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5.

We've heard a million whistles blow from morn to late at night

How we'd like to kill the dirty bums that robbed us of our right

And the foreman we've had over us how many we can't tell

But we'll bar them all from heaven till they do their hitch in hell

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6.

When that final call is sounded and we've laid aside life's cares

We'll do our final big parade right up those golden stairs

The angels they will welcome us, their harps will start to play

Then we'll draw a million canteen checks and spend them in a day

It is then we'll hear St Peter greet us loudly with his yell

Take those front seats C.C. boys for you've done your hitch in hell.

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The notes of the cowboy tune, and its lyrics, can be found on the website here

http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiWORKDONE;ttWORKDONE.html

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