I’m My Own Grandpa
(written by Moe Jaffe & Dwight B. Latham)
Most hear it as sung by Willie Nelson
Now many, many years ago when I was twenty-three,
I was married to a widow who was pretty as could be.
This widow had a grown-up daughter, had hair of red,
My father fell in love with her and soon the two were wed.
This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life,
My daughter was my mother ‘cuz she was my father’s wife.
To complicate the matter, even though it brought me joy,
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.
My little boy then became the brother-in-law to dad,
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad.
For if he was my uncle, that also made him brother of the
Widow’s grown-up daughter, who, of course, was my stepmother.
Chorus:
I’m my own grandpa, I’m my own grandpa,
It sounds funny, I know, but I really is so,
For I’m my own grandpa.
My father’s wife then had a son that kept him on the run,
And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter’s son.
My wife is now my mother’s mother and it makes me blue,
Because she is my wife, she’s my grandmother, too.
Chorus…
Now if my wife’s my grandmother, then I’m her grandchild,
And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild.
For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw,
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa.