David Fox

Lyrics

It was back in the 50s and 60s
In those years of great promise and change
When the boys all grew up playing stickball
And greasing their bicycle chains
 
From Downtown to the cars on Route 20
Riverside down to Crooks Avenue
From the textile mills
To the Eastside Park hills
Lay the city that all of us knew
 
To the jobs in the mills all the immigrants came
And they’d work and they’d sweat over each iron frame
As they wove the silk thread that gave Paterson fame
But the river that wove through the town
Began to turn murky and brown
 
Oh we all shopped on Market and Main Street
And we all took the bus down Broadway
And we all went to churches and temples
Just to gather as much as to pray
 
There was football with Eastside and Central
That they’d play every Thanksgiving Day
And parades we would have
Like the one down Park Ave
That was held every thirty of May
 
Through the ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s she grew
Till the ‘70s came and the residents flew
To the green of the suburbs and warm ocean blue
Of Florida’s tropical shore
And the city we knew was no more
 
So raise a glass to the Fabian Theater
The Majestic, The Garden and more
To the Hamilton Hotel
To the Great Falls that fell
To the Meyers’ magnificent store
 
Raise a glass to the Jews and Italians
To the Blacks to the Irish and Greeks
And let’s make a toast to
All the people we knew
Who grew up on Paterson’s streets
 
So here’s to the laughter and here’s to the tears
Here’s to the triumphs in spite of the fears
And here’s to old Paterson’s glorious years
When our great city shined like a star
And we all became who we are
 
For wherever our journeys would take us
And however long we parted ways
We made friends that would last for a lifetime
In those mythical Paterson days
 
So let’s drink to the laughter and drink to the tears
Drink to the triumphs in spite of the fears
And drink to old Paterson’s glorious years
Till there’s none of us left who recalls
All the water that fell from the falls
 
So here’s to those days
We’ll remember always
To those mythical Paterson days
 
©2016 David Fox Music (ASCAP)   All rights reserved