Old City Bar....

So this is the most "Erin" thing that I have ever done. I tend to be an emotional type anyway, but yesterday, I found myself in tears, as I was sitting in Drew's truck, waiting for him as he ran inside to get something. I was listening to a new Christmas CD that we had just bought, the TranSiberian Orchastra. I love Christmas music...all different kinds, but I was really enjoying this CD because it was a little different than the typical "White Christmas" and "Frosty the Snowman" that ya always hear. Then this song came on and for whatever reason, in listening to it, I was moved to tears. While that is not really that shocking if you truly know me...or really, know me just a little bit, I kind of surprised myself. The last Christmas song that I cried to was "Rocky Mountain Christmas"....and that was when I moved to San Diego and I was missing a Colorado Christmas.

Well, the singer has an old, kind of scratchy voice sets the tone in my opinion...and here are the lyrics. Maybe they will move you the same way they did me...if not, maybe the fact that it is Christmas, a time for caring and sharing and helping, will.

OLD CITY BAR

In an old city bar

That is never too far

From the places that gather

The dreams that have been
In the safety of night

With its old neon light

It beckons to strangers

And they always come in
*

And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

The music was low

And the night Christmas Eve
And here was the danger

That even with strangers I

nside of this night It's easier to believe

*
Then the door opened wide

And a child came inside

That no one in the bar

Had seen there before
And he asked did we know

That outside in the snow

That someone was lost

Standing outside our door

*
Then the bartender gazed

Through the smoke and the haze
Through the window and ice

To a corner streetlight
Where standing alone

By a broken pay phone

Was a girl the child said

Could no longer get home

*
And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

The bartender turned

And said, not that I care

But how would you know this?

The child said I've noticed

If one could be home

They'd be all ready there

*
Then the bartender came out from behind the bar

And in all of his life he was never that far

And he did something else that he thought no one saw

When he took all the cash from the register draw
Then he followed the child to the girl cross the street

And we watched from the bar as they started to speak

Then he called for a cab and he said J.F.K.

Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away

And we saw in his hand

That the cash was all gone

From the light that she had wished upon

*
If you want to arrange it

This world you can change it

If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help You need only just ask
*

Then he looked for the child

But the child wasn't there

Just the wind and the snow

Waltzing dreams through the air
So he walked back inside

Somehow different I think

For the rest of the night

No one paid for a drink

*
And the cynics will say

That some neighborhood kid

Wandered in on some bums

In the world where they hid
But they weren't there

So they couldn't see

By an old neon star

On that, night, Christmas Eve

*
When the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

And in case you should wonder

In case you should care
Why we're on our own

Never went home

On that night of all nights

We were already there

***