Near the end of chapter 4 of And China has Hands, the story the old man told Wan-Lee Wong had me contemplating time and the value of time which led me to this song.
“He said that as a young boy in China he was old that America was full of gold and one could pick as much as he liked… He had worked in a gold mine and he had worked building a railroad, been a gandy dancer. He worked hard, but didn’t save money. Yes, he did make something, but he didn’t know where all his money went… As the years went by, his hair turned from black to gray and from gray to white. And from white-haired old man he turned to a bald-headed old man.”