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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Words of the song "Allentown" by Billy Joel

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
 
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay
 
Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
And chromium steel
And we're waiting here in Allentown
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
Every child has a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our place
 
Well I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Allentown
 
 
(I think this song explains so much of our history and applies to our everyday life now, I hope we can keep from actually repeating our history but....yet here we are alive in these words once again)



2 comments:

  1. Good song Debby. I remember well when the steel plants were all shutting down. Tough times once again.

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  2. It is a song that breaks things down about our society changes, when I think of the American system now I think of how people work all day if not with 2 jobs, there are lines in the store as everyone tries to save $ on big sale items. When do we relax on the Jersey shore? How did one car become 3 to every household? It is interesting how things have changed and yet stayed the same...

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