Album: Wichita Lineman (1968)

Charted: 32

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• She looks in the mirror and stares at the wrinkles that weren't there yesterday
  And thinks of the young man that she almost married
  What would he think if he saw her this way?
  
  She picks up her apron in little girl fashion as something else comes to her mind
  Slowly starts dancing remembering her girlhood
  And all of the boys she had waiting in line
  
  Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife
  You see everywhere any time of the day
  An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me
  
  The photograph album she takes from the closet and slowly she turns the page
  And carefully picks up the crumbling flower
  The first one he gave her, now withered today
  
  She closes her eyes and touches the house dress that suddenly disappears
  And just for the moment she's wearing the gown
  That broke all their minds back so many years
  
  Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife
  You see ev'rywhere any time of the day
  An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me
  
  Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife
  You see ev'rywhere any time of the day
  An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me
  
  Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife
  You see ev'rywhere any time of the day
  An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me Writer/s: Chris Gantry
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

• Thathatlady from Grayslake, IlI was only 9 years old when this song came out in 1968. I am 65 now. My view of this song has changed over my lifetime, and I think readers will enjoy it. As a kid, I was sad and haunted by the song. I feared growing old and wondered if I would be unhappy like the lady in the song. By 1976, the women's liberation movement was in full swing, and I was a teenager who knew it all. I thought the song was uncool, dated, and patronizing. I was embarrassed for the lady. I said: "Doesn't she have ambitions beyond being a housewife? She could have chosen a career, no husband, no kids, travel, wear fine clothes, have her hair and face done, and date as many guys as she wants!" Then the 1980s arrived, I got a job and got married. That decade passed into the 1990s. I finished my undergraduate degree, and we bought our first home, I transitioned into professional sales and had our first child. I was in my 30s when I heard the song on the radio one day, but this time I was in tears. I understood the fear of aging. I remembered the tall, dark, handsome guy I'd turned down for marriage in the 1980s because he was firm about not wanting kids. I looked him up online and found he was a married police officer in my state, but no kids listed to their address. I thought of my daughter and was thankful I did not marry him. I looked in the mirror and thought I looked pretty good for my age, since I was a good weight and exercising regularly. I drove through his city many times on field sales calls over the years, but I never saw him. The millennium arrived, and I finished my master's degree. More decades passed. Now we are 25 years post-millennium and retirement age but still working. Our daughter is married and living out of state. I heard this song in my head today. I looked up my ex-boyfriend and found he and his wife retired years before us and moved to Arizona. Still no kids listed to their address and no social media pages. They aren't connected to his relatives on Facebook. They must be a private couple. As I thought of this song's lyrics, I felt glad to be alive, surviving illnesses and surgeries. Wrinkles are not a concern. It's not important what my ex-boyfriend would think of me today, only what I would think of him! I want us to live to see our grandchildren. I enjoy reminiscing but remain hopeful for our future. I miss my youthful figure, but I don't miss dating. If I could give advice to the lady in the song, I'd say: "Please dream of a happy future and not dwell on the past so much."
• Paul from Melbourne, FloridaI was 5 years old when Glen Campbell released this song. I, of course, didn't understand the song then. What 5-year-old does?!? At that age, we decide what songs we like by how they sound!
  
  I'm sure I probably asked my mom what the song meant; and I'm sure she gave me the standard "mom" answer from the "Book of Mom, Chapter 7" -- "When you get older, son, you'll understand."
  
  Moms. Gotta love 'em!

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