I've never had a pair of shoes that weren't ol' hand-me-downs
And daddy's morning coffee came from ol' left over grounds
My mama wore no jewelry or any store-bought stuff
And home was on a hillside forty miles from Poplar Bluff

Forty miles back in Missouri, there's a different way of life
Where a man thinks of his neighbor and not his neighbor's wife
Life is far from fancy, sometimes mighty rough
But contentment makes it worth it, forty miles from Poplar Bluff

Our only family treasure was a beat up radio
But it took us to the places where we knew we'd never go
We never had much money but we always had enough
'Cause money never mattered much forty miles from Poplar Bluff

Forty miles back in Missouri, there's a different way of life
Where a man thinks of his neighbor and not his neighbor's wife
Life is far from fancy, sometimes mighty rough
But contentment makes it worth it, forty miles from Poplar Bluff

Well, nearly every winter when the snow is on the ground
And the roads would all be closed and we couldn't get to town
But if daddy had his tabaccer, grandma had her snuff
Then the winters didn't seem so long forty miles from Poplar Bluff

Forty miles back in Missouri, there's a different way of life
Where a man thinks of his neighbor and not his neighbor's wife
Life is far from fancy, sometimes mighty rough
But contentment makes it worth it, forty miles from Poplar Bluff
Forty miles from Poplar Bluff