Dear David,
Enjoyed your tale of Pennsylvania and the adventure in resettlement. Thought
I’d share the song that made the area famous in music a few decades ago; a
little background music for the adventure.
https://youtu.be/bbWbrM2m8SQ
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 coal
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 giving up today
And we're living here in Allentown
Songwriters: Billy Joel
Allentown lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Cheers! —Sherrie
“The Privilege of a lifetime is being who you are” —Joseph Campbell
