MiddleTown Dreams

[Mike]

Middletown Dreams - Rush

I have lived in so many small "middletowns" (defined as a common name for a town or city located midway between two landmarks (bigger towns, rivers, etc).) in my life.

In a place you leave your front door unlocked, you know all your neighbors. You walk the streets at night without fear of the unknown. You ride your bikes down to the creek after school, skipping rocks across the pond, catching frogs. On weekends you ride around the neighborhood on your bike with the striped banana seat with the sissy bar, chopper handlebars and baseball cards held with clothes-pins in your spokes, collecting soda bottles for their 5¢ deposits - cashing them in you fill a small bag with candy and licoric whips at the local five and dime.

Then you spend the warm summer afternoons listening to you transistor radio pressed against your ear laying in a field of grass dreaming about that cute new girl that just moved into town, with pig-tails and shiney braces. Golly can she rollerskate! If only I could tell her I like her so much. She's got the most beautiful brown eyes, and if she only knew I existed.

It's time to go, back in time. Time to remember the glorious feelings all over again. Time to keep the dreams alive for the next generations to ponder.

The office door closed early

The hidden bottle came out

The salesman turned to close the blinds

A little slow now, a little stout

But he's still heading down those tracks

Any day now for sure

Another day as drab as today

Is more than a man can endure

Chorus

Dreams flow across the heartland

Feeding on the fires

Dreams transport desires

Drive you when you're down

Dreams transport the ones who need to get out of town

The boy walks with his best friend

Through the fields of early May

They walk awhile in silence

One close, one far away

But he'd be climbing on that bus

Just him and his guitar

To blaze across the heavens

Like a brilliant shooting star

The middle-aged madonna

Calls her neighbour on the phone

Day by day the seasons pass

And leave her life alone

But she'll go walking out that door

On some bright afternoon

To go and paint big cities

From a lonely attic room

It's understood

By every single person

Who'd be elsewhere if they could

So far so good

And life's not unpleasant

In their little neighborhood

Chorus

They dream in Middletown.

[Tenacious_Peaches]

I lived in a place like that from the age of 12 to 18. I remember playing outside all summer long with all the neighborhood kids from the time we got up in the morning until way past dark. We'd play kickball in the middle of the street. We always had a radio going and would sing and dance all the time. We felt very safe in our little area. Good times.

[TheLizard]

My mom grew up in a Middletown. Literally, that's what the town's name is. And that's what it was.