Our Old House

807 West Division Street!
Is the house I remember best
From my days of growing up
In a small town in the Middle West.

We lived upstairs, the five of us,
Mother, Dad, Mary, Dick and me.
Two more apartments were below
And garages there were three.

A foundry was across the street.
Trains ran almost in our front yard
At night the noise from them
Made sleeping rather hard.

Our playground was “down the Tracks”
If we weren’t in a neighbor’s yard.
We could pick berries there
Or watch hobos playing cards

“The Bum’s Camp” was where they met,
These men with their own code.
In a hollow between two railroad lines
Gathered The Knights of the Road.

We played outside til dark of night
All kinds of games in sun or snow.
When we heard a mother loudly calling
We knew it was time to go.

We had no tv or video games
In those days you know.
But almost every Saturday
We went to a movie show.

Other houses were our home
Before 807 West bivision, and after.
But somehow in this house
I remember more fun and laughter.

jhs