Not many songs depict true socio-economic class differences and changes in the last half century as “My Hometown” by Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen has always taken up the anthem of the working class in this country, and this song is no different. Although seemingly a story of one man’s life told in three different parts, he accurately describes what life was like during this time for a young, and probably idealistic, generation.
“I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown, this is your hometown”
In the first verse of the song, he introduces himself as a young boy of eight years old, small enough to fit on his father’s lap in the driver’s seat of the car. From other verses in the song, we can assume it’s probably sometime around the early 1950’s during which time, the country was prosperous for the most part. The scene is obviously taking place in a small town, and during that time the economy was good. His father is driving him around their town with the small-town pride that is reminiscent of that era. It also shows how innocent the young eight year old is, and the safety of the age, when a very young boy feels safe running down the streets of his town.
The Essay on Town Hall Client Small Mayor
I have always had an entrepreneurial sprit. A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I decided to start a small part-time consulting enterprise. We envisioned a potential market in small companies that were unable to afford a large consulting firm. After some deliberations we agreed to begin with a pilot project and targeted a couple of local car dealers as well as the Town Hall of Tres Arroyos, ...
“In `65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown”
In the second verse, the social climate has changed. There was so much unrest in the mid-‘60’s with civil rights issues, and the first US troops being sent to Vietnam, that it was a very chaotic time all over the country. The boy in the song is now in high school, and the lyrics speak of a racial incident happening in that brings “troubled times” to his hometown, however, the actually shooting was probably a result of the tension already there.
“Now main streets whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ‘aint nobody wants to come down here no more
They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they aint coming back to
Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown”
In the third verse, the young man talks about how the depressed economy has severely affected his town with layoffs, failed businesses, and closed textile mills. This is symbolic of not just this particular town, but what was happening all over the country at the time. The example in the song is a textile mill, but steel mills in Pennsylvania, coal mines in West Virginia, and other textile mills across the northeast were similarly affected by the economy of the time. The foreman of the textile mill in his town says, “These jobs are going boys, and they ‘aint coming back to your hometown.” It’s as though he’s speaking to an entire generation, not only the boys in this one town.
“Last night me and Kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
The Term Paper on Town Of Redding Sam Tim Rebel
My Brother Sam is Dead Author: by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier Category: Historical Fiction Summary: It starts out in the 1770's during the Revolution War and Samuel Meeker or Sam for short just interred the room of the tavern and he chimes in to everybody who is waiting to eat, he comes in saying where beating the Lobster Backs. His father, Eliphalet Meeker but called Life for ...
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
I’m thirty-five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good
Look around, This is your hometown”
The fourth and final verse is about this young man growing up and raising his own family in the same town he grew up in. He’s thirty five years old talking to his wife about leaving to somewhere that they assume must be more prosperous. This verse speaks strongly to the sense of pride this man feels in his town. The fact that they’re still there speaks to the loyalty that he and his wife feel for the place in which they grew up, in spite of its problems. Finally, with the same pride that his father showed when he was a child, he sits his young son on his lap and drives him through his hometown.
