Community Song

My Hometown by Bruce Springsteen

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
Id sit on his lap in that big old buick and steer as we drove through town
Hed tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown, this is your hometown
This is your hometown, this is your hometown

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
My hometown, my hometown, my hometown

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

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
Im 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

      Bruce Springsteen's approach to his former community is full of mixed feelings. He starts of the song talking about when he was young, when his memories of his birthplace were fond. However, once he gets into the second verse, the darker side of his former community emerges. At the time, racism predominated most schools, and there "(were) a lot of fights between the black and white". If not for the racism, his memories would've been better. He sees his hometown as a snare, and uses the term "getting out" instead of simply leaving. He feels tethered to the town because it is his community- his bond to the town only strengthened as he grew up there.