Bruce Springsteen writes a good song about endings. I suddenly thought tonight that we need one about the opposite.  This is to the tune of his My Hometown, but whereas the original is about the death of a town in eighties America, this is about a town that’s been through that and maybe has a future.

2015

He’s eight years old,
Likes walking with
Me, down Church Street
To the lolly shop to pick
Up some jelly
Beans to eat.
He counts every coin
In his piggy bank,
He adds them and lays them down.
Clutches the bag
And says, Dad look
At all we’ve found:
This is our home town
This is our home town
This is our home town
This is our home town

In ’95
The town was set to die,
The signs you could read:
Unemployment bites
Time to cut the lights
But the townsfolk disagreed.
Built a bank and a park
Brought a brand new spark
Would not let it fade.
Ways were found
Bring the town around.
Look at all they made:
It’s our home town
It’s our home town
It’s our home town
It’s our home town

Now Church Street’s full with a pageant
Christmas nears.
Seems like there’s all these kids now,
Want to come walking down here.
The rain can fall
Most likely will
Oh, but they don’t mind.
They’re Geeveston kids
There’s a party on
So they came here to find
This is their home town
This is their home town
This is their home town
This is their home town

Tonight when the boy
Laid down in bed
Talking ’bout all he’d seen
Fire trucks
And Santa Claus and
Trees so green
He asked me will
We take that walk
Every year
I told him, son of mine,
There’ll come a time
When you tell your boy so dear,
This is our hometown