It was Charlie who taught me to ride on a bike It was Charlie who taught me 'bout flyin' a kite It was Charlie who taught me the beauty of dreams He'd say "Life's so much more than it seems"
He looked like a scarecrow so ragged and thin When he knocked at the farmhouse door I could tell that my mother was nervous at first With my father away in the war He said he was hungry from waking so far, But a handout never would do "Now my name is Charlie and for something to eat I could predict the weather for you"
He talked of the talent with which he was blessed "It's an odd sort of gift," he explained "But the Lord makes the weather and I just observe And only a fool could complain" As night time was falling we asked him to stay And he camped by the sycamore trees My mother asked "What will you do if it rains?" Charlie smiled and said, "Just leave the weather to me"
In the wandering breeze I can hear again The song that Charlie the weatherman sang Sweet breath of God blow he clouds away 'Til I walk in the light of that endless spring day
Now Charlie stayed with us as days turned to weeks It seemed that somehow he belonged And I'd always tease him when he watched the sky But his forecasts never were wrong And Charlie would tell me a story each night From the tattered old bible he read "Winter or summer, spring time or fall It's the weather inside us that matters" he said.
One morning at breakfast he seemed a bit sad With a far away look in his eyes, "Storms rollin' in" That was all he said though there wasn't a cloud in the sky The last time I saw him he waved his old hat As he stood at the of the hill He left me his bible and in it he wrote "Keep your eyes on the sky" and I always will And it rained and rained like the tears I cried The day that Charlie the weatherman died And the wind has carried his heart away Past the silver-lined clouds to that endless spring day