I did not inherit the land or the money or the title free,
I inherited the work ethic that my father handed me,
He said the right to walk straight has to be earned every single dawn,
And a man who has not earned it has no business carrying on.
The right to walk straight through the door with your head level high,
The right to walk straight is not given by the sky,
You earn it in the long hours and the years of keeping true,
The right to walk straight is what the working life gives you.
He kept every receipt from every job that he had ever done,
A drawer full of paper proof of everything he had won,
Not the money but the record that the work had been performed,
The right to walk straight is the pride of having always conformed.
I look at that drawer sometimes and I think about the man,
Who kept every stub and ticket since the work first began,
He earned the right to walk straight through forty years of consistent do,
And I am trying to do the same thing and walk straight too.