O! those mountains stand so tall and dark that lie across the way

and they seem to hold their hands up to the sky

just to keep me from my True Love who is on the other side!

but I ain’t one to despair – and here’s why…

‘cause come Spring, My Love, come Spring

I’m a-gonna cross those mountains high

and bring you back across here to live with me

and I’ll share with you my love ‘till the day that I die

on this you can depend

I’ll love you without end

– come Spring!

O! those mountains even now don’t separate you from my love

‘cause you’re with me in my thoughts and in my prayers

and come Spring those tall, forbidding peaks won’t be so tall at all!

‘cause I’m a-comin’ o’er the top

this bird they cannot stop

if I must I’ll tunnel through

any way just to get to you

– come Spring!

‘cause come Spring, My Love, come Spring

I’m a-gonna cross those mountains high

and bring you back across here to live with me

and I’ll share with you my love ‘till the day that I die

and I can’t wait to begin

on this you can depend

I’ll love you without end

– come Spring!

~dsp [1975]

BACKSTORY: I wrote this little fun-love-song for Debbie back during the loooong winter of 1975. Over the course of 1975, we had discovered and declared our love for each other and were engaged in August of that year. We planned our marriage for Spring of 1976 [June 18].

We were living 400 miles apart. I was pastoring in Alexander County, western North Carolina, and she was in Lexington KY. It was exactly 404 miles of ‘a long and winding road’ from my back door to her front door.

I would get on I-40 at Statesville NC, go west to Asheville and then to Knoxville – at Knoxville, I would turn north on I-75 to Lexington. And, it was mountains and hills all the way.

When I would step out of my house and longingly look west in the direction of where she was [which I often did], all I could see was hills and mountains – and I knew there were more and more beyond these.

In fact, this picture is the first range of hills that I would encounter after leaving my driveway. This picture was taken just outside the back door of the parsonage I was living in at the time [and where I would bring her back across to live with me]. These are the Brushy Mountains. Then, as I headed west through Hickory, I would come to Asheville and Black Mountain. More … and bigger … mountains. Then, on to Tennessee and drive for miles through what I call “Tennessee mountain passes” where I-40 actually snakes and spirals up and down around the sides of the mountains – and a couple tunnels thrown in to add to the fun. Get to Knoxville and head north to Lexington, and you’ll go up and down the mountains and hills of Eastern Kentucky all the way to Lexington.

So, you get the picture – that’s why I imagined that all these mountains and hills were just trying to hold their hands up to the sky to block me and keep me from my True Love who was on the other side. But, they couldn’t, and they didn’t. ‘Cause I did cross all those tall peaks, and I did bring her back across to live with me … come Spring!  

So, I wrote her this little fun-love-song over that winter, and I would sing it to her with the accompaniment of my autoharp. I composed the tune I sang it to – it’s never been written down because I can’t write music. So, nobody else knows the tune except for us. Maybe that’s a good thing. On some of those end-words to some of the lines [like, for example, “who is on the other siiiiiide,” “till the day that I diiiiiiie,” “won’t be so tall at aaaaallllll,”] I would stretch those words out and kind of wail them with inflections of notes, kind of like a slow yodel.