From the recording Karoline With a K
Lyrics
<p>KAROLINE WITH A K</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She boarded a Westbound ship in eighteen-eighty-something</p>
<p>When the ice had finally melted off the deep, Norwegian fjords</p>
<p>Leavin' behind her a little more than nothing</p>
<p>The family farm and the nineteen years that had gone before</p>
<p>In one hand was a bag of pitiful belongings</p>
<p>The other held on to her little sister's arm</p>
<p>Mother and father, they followed close behind her</p>
<p>She was the only one they trusted since they left the farm</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And the vessel left the harbor</p>
<p>and they braved the North Atlantic sea</p>
<p>Even breathing seemed unfamiliar</p>
<p>as they headed for the land of the free</p>
<p>Learning 'bout herself along the way</p>
<p>Now she was Karoline with a K</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The family found their home in central Minnesota</p>
<p>Where the men broke rocks and the women kept them fed</p>
<p>Karoline was courted by a man twenty years her senior</p>
<p>On a pale blue sky day in the fall they wed</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And the summers lasted longer</p>
<p>But the winter's frost was just as cold</p>
<p>Let her feel like she belonged there</p>
<p>as the seasons would unfold</p>
<p>Minnesota was where she was bound to stay</p>
<p>where she was Karoline with a K</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I don't know if she ever asked herself</p>
<p>if she was truly happy</p>
<p>I read nothing between the lines</p>
<p>in the letters that she wrote</p>
<p>To the rest of the world</p>
<p>she is simply a statistic</p>
<p>One of many hopeful faces</p>
<p>coming off the boat</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But to me she was a believer</p>
<p>before anyone had called it the American Dream</p>
<p>To a future so uncertain</p>
<p>she closed her eyes and took a giant leap</p>
<p>A distant relative who paved the way</p>
<p>Yeah, she was Karoline with a K</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Oh oh oh</p>
<p>She was Karoline with a K</p>