(words & music by Kimmie Rhodes & Jim Rushing)
Lyrics
Long distance operator, Sir, can I help connect your call?
Do you long to hear the voice to match that picture on your wall?
At the board her hand connects two hearts between Broadway and Main,
and they join the voices in the wires that stretch across the plains.
Where the rattlesnakes rattle and the jackrabbits run,
and the high lines sing in the blistering sun.
Long distance operator, Ma’am, can you help me reach my Mom,
on a farm outside of Lubbock from a Post in Vietnam?
I’m so homesick in this jungle so, if you want to be my friend,
hold that phone outside the window so I can hear the howling wind.
Where the rattlesnakes rattle and the jackrabbits run,
and the high lines sing in the blistering sun.
She was the unsung hero in the recent days of old.
An angel in West Texas you could reach by pushing O,
Oh! She’s more than missed by more than some,
Where the rattlesnakes rattle and the jackrabbits run,
and the high lines sing in the blistering sun.
Long distance operator, you’ve seen your better days.
You’ve now become old fashioned in a new computer age.
But, we can still remember you, though we’ve never seen your face.
A lady with a headset in a rain forsaken place.
Where the rattlesnakes rattle and the jackrabbits run,
and the high lines sing in the blistering sun.