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I pondered on those days gone by as I wandered all alone,
In a little spot I love so dear, in a place that I call home.
The sun was slowly sinking down beside the hillside green,
My thoughts went back to days gone by when I was sweet sixteen.
O how I long for those bright days to come again once more,
But come again they never will for now I'm sixty-four.
That's where I spent my childhood days among the rocks and rills,
To the banks of a lovely riverside that flows down Flatrock hills;
The children playing around your banks, they're just as fresh and green,
O that's the place that never changed since I was sweet sixteen.
O how I long for those bright days to come again once more,
But come again they never will for now I'm sixty-four.
'Twas in these dark depression days we had no rum or wine,
With a gallon of molasses why we'd make a drop o' shine;
And an old quadrille, your heart would thrill to the fiddle and 'cordeen,
We never had an orchestra when I was sweet sixteen.
O how I long for those bright days to come again once more,
But come again they never will for now I'm sixty-four.
We danced all night 'til the broad daylight, we wore our old blue jeans,
We never had no go-go girls, we had no T.V. screen;
But a pleasant smile you'd see upon the face of each colleen,
They never wore no make-up then when I was sweet sixteen.
O how I long for those bright days to come again once more,
But come again they never will for now I'm sixty-four.
But the young girls that you meet today, a different sight you'll see,
You'll see them wearing mini-skirts a foot above their knee;
And when they puts their make-up on they looks like Halloween,
Their mothers never wore the like when I was sweet sixteen.
O how I long for those bright days to come again once more,
But come again they never will for now I'm sixty-four.
O how the times have changed since then when I was in my bloom,
Men from this earth that gave them birth have walked upon the moon;
But the moon still shines down Lover's Lane as it shone on Fiddler's Green,
Some forty years or more gone by when I was sweet sixteen.
O how I long for those bright days to come again once more,
But come again they never will for now I'm sixty-four.
Collected in 1977 from the author, Maurice Hogan, of Flatrock, NL, by Genevieve Lehr and Anita Best and published as #75 in Come And I Will Sing You: A Newfoundland Songbook, pp.131-132, edited by Genevieve Lehr (University of Toronto Press © 1985/2003).
Genevieve Lehr noted that she first heard Maurice Hogan sing this song at the Good Entertainment Festival in 1977. She asked him if he would sing it for her and he very kindly made a trip from Flatrock into St. John's for that purpose. It is one of his own compositions.
GEST is of the opinion that Now I'm Sixty-Four and When We Were Sweet Sixteen are both derived from Maurice Hogan's Song.
