Where the Hour Went — A Sunday Ballad for the Night the Clocks Fall Back
Where the Hour Went
The story behind the song
Tonight the clocks fall back — the one night a year the calendar just hands you an hour, free and clear. And I got to thinking about my grandson, eight years old and full of plans, who heard about it and decided he was going to SAVE his. Fold it up like feed money and keep it in the coffee can on the dresser. I didn't argue. You don't talk a boy out of a plan like that — you hand him the gloves and let the day teach him.
So that's what we did. Frost on the stock tank, dogs underfoot, pancakes, kindling stacked crooked on purpose. By supper the hour was gone, and he looked up from his plate and knew it — and grinned anyway. That's the whole sermon, friends. An hour ain't for keeping. It's for spending, a minute at a time, on who's right there in front of you.
First frost was on the water this morning when I wrote this one. First Sunday the house felt like winter. Seemed right.
Lyrics
[Intro]
Mm
Yeah
[Verse 1]
First frost on the stock tank, thin as a thumbnail
He scrapes it with his boot heel, eight years old and full of plans
Says the clocks fall back tonight, Paw, we get a free hour
I'm gonna fold it up and keep it in the coffee can
I don't tell him different, I just hand him the gloves
Off the tailgate, still stiff with cold
Some things a boy learns better with his hands
Than any truth an old man's told
[Chorus]
Where the hour went, where the hour went
He kept checking that phone like the time might stick
But frost don't wait and dogs don't care
And pancakes brown too quick
Where the hour went
[Verse 2]
Dogs underfoot on the pickup ride
Hay in the bed, him on the hump between
He holds his mama's old phone like a bankbook
Watching 1:59 blink back to 1:00 like a magic trick
We chop kindling, he stacks it crooked
I don't fix it, let the crooked stand
He asks if sixty minutes fits inside a coffee can
I say we'll see, and split another round
[Chorus]
Where the hour went, where the hour went
He kept checking that phone like the time might stick
But frost don't wait and dogs don't care
And pancakes brown too quick
Where the hour went
[Instrumental Bridge]
[Verse 3]
Supper light on the table, day gone soft
He looks up from his plate, fork halfway down
Paw, it's gone, I never even felt it leave
And he don't cry, he just looks around
At the kindling stack, the sleeping dogs
The pancake smell still in the air
Then he sets down the fork, reaches for the last one
Grins like he finally knows where
[Outro]
Where the hour went
An hour ain't for keeping, it's for spending
A minute at a time on who's right there
Written & performed by Waylon · DirtRoadRadio