John Prine's "Grandpa was a Carpenter" [video | lyrics] is basically a song about how old fashioned his grandparents were, but mainly chronicles some of the badass, Ron Swanson-type shit his grandfather used to do.
'Grandpa wore his suit to dinner
Nearly every day
No particular reason
He just dressed that way
Brown necktie and a matching vest
And both his wingtip shoes
He built a closet on our back porch
And put a penny in a burned out fuse
Grandpa was a carpenter
He built houses stores and banks
Chain smoked Camel cigarettes
And hammered nails in planks'
I love the fact he wears a three-piece suit to dinner for no reason, and fixing the burned out fuse with a penny is just brilliant. (+camden lindsay assures me it actually works despite not being at all safe)
'Well, he used to sing me
"Blood on the Saddle"
And rock me on his knee'
If you have never heard "Blood on the Saddle" [video | lyrics] check it out, or reading the lyrics alone will do, because it has to be one of the worst songs to sing to child that was around back then. All while chain smoking Camel's...this guy is my hero.
Anyway - the real line I wanted to mention was the line at the end of the chorus, "He voted for Eisenhower, 'Cause Lincoln won the war." This one has always intrigued me because I didn't understand the relationship between the two Presidents who have almost 100 years between their terms. Abraham Lincoln (b. 1809) was a Republican who served as President from 1861 to 1865 and Dwight D. Eisenhower (b. 1890) was also a Republican, elected to office from 1953 and serving until 1961.
Prine's grandfather would have been about 20 years younger than Eisenhower, and likely was born shortly after the end of the Civil War in 1865. As a result, many people of that time held staunch political grudges which were sympathetic to the views they held before the war began. This resulted in most Southerner's voting Democratic (i.e. Yellow Dog Democrats) and most Northerner's voting Republican with great regularity.
So Prine's grandfather was one of these Northern Republicans (he was from Illinois and his wife Kentucky...or at least she went to school there.) Either way, both states were Union supporting, Republican leaning, Northern/Border States in the war. I wish I knew more about how this rift affected political relations between the two parties but I really don't have any idea. We think the two parties are useless and hate each other now, but this rivalry must have made it very difficult to compromise on anything.
