Love Wore A Halo (back Before The War) Lyrics - Griffith Nanci

by Nanci Griffith 

He owned a hotel on Jersey shore 

She made her living seeing the sailors door to door 

He was a small Hawaiian with a crooked smile 

But he made her eyes light up like the heavens on the Fourth of July 

She ran the numbers, they say she ran them clean 

Those porcelain hands keep a ledger even in her sleeves 

While he worked the See-Bees in the Phillipines 

They say she made more money than you and I will ever see 

Chorus: 

Cause love was a magnet on the Jersey shore 

If you were looking for love boys, you could have found it in '44 

Cause love wore a halo back before the war 

When the men loved the women 

And the women knew what men were for 

It was in the winter when he came home 

And he had to hold those porcelain hands just to keep her warm 

So they had a daughter, her name was Stephanie Anne 

They sent her off to Vasser to find herself a family man 

She sold the hotel; it belongs to me 

And I watch those sailors come and go by the waves in the sea 

From the poor chaps in the honeymoon suite 

And I hear them fishing their lives away in the Florida Keys