It's much warmer these days, don't know what happened to spring We're all perspiring but there's something chilly in my veins Here I am in California, thinking of Boulder again She left Sacramento in '52, her daddy got a job back at CU And he bought a house of Fifth and Arapahoe I was eighteen, such a reckless child, and those hazel eyes just drove me wild So I kept my promise to follow her where she'd go I got a job down in the mine, smutched my fingers trying to make hers shine On New Year's Eve I held her tight, asked her to be my heart and life On the first of '53 her daddy said no Sent her off to Massachusetts, some women's school Later that year the coal mine blew So I went back to family in Sacramento The night before we said goodbye I swore to wait and she swore to try And we made love on the old Chautauqua Green I got her letters and she got mine, twice a week then one at a time There was nothing longer than the days between She wrote of professors, friends, the Harvard mixer ball Summer came and I needed work, I couldn't visit her at all Then I got a letter in '55, it killed me to read "He'll never take your place in my heart but this can never be "Sending love from coast to coast is only fantasy "But we'll always have Boulder, September '53" She got married, had a kid and died between June '57 and May '65 And I still got that ring in my billfold I never wed, though I had the chance, but I learned guitar and I learned to dance And a fella gets enough to satisfy his soul But here in Angels City, summertime lasts half the year And it's never more than sixty in the memories I hold dear And she used to tell me that she'd hate getting old So each summer night when I close my eyes, pray when I go my soul survives And we'll together face the cold