Halley Came to Jackson Lyrics

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Late one night when the wind was still
Daddy brought the baby to the window still
To see a bit of heaven shoot across the sky
The one and only time daddy saw it fly
It came from the east just as bright as a torch
The neighbors had a party on their porch
Daddy rocked the baby mother said amen
When Halley came to visit in 1910

Now back then Jackson was a real small town
And it¡¯s not every night a comet comes around
It was almost eighty years since its last time through
So I bet your mother would have said amen too
As its tailed stretched out like a stardust streak
The papers wrote about it every day for a week
You wondered where it¡¯s going and where it¡¯s been
When Halley came to Jackson in 1910

Now daddy told the baby sleeping in his arms
To dream a little dream of a comet¡¯s charms
And he made a little wish as she slept so sound
In 1986 that wish came ¡®round
It came from the east just as bright as a torch
She saw it in the sky from her daddy¡¯s porch
As heavenly sent as it was back then
When Halley came to Jackson in 1910

And late one night when the wind was still