Going Home to Mechanicsville
What's this I see
From the top of the hill?
Chickahominy River
And Mechanicsville.
Trucks parked by the bridges,
Their owners out for a hike,
Do they fish in the swamp
For old Mechanicsville pike?
Across Chickahominy Swamp
On the small grassy hill,
Past Bruce's Auto Parts
Grew the windmill.
Where Atlee Road met Shady Grove
And Cold Harbor ran off to the right,
They wrecked Rebel Inn for a convenience store;
There once wasn't even a light.
A Civil War battle
Before we were alive;
Now Beaver Dam Creek
Is 295.
Out 360 East
We took a bum rap,
When things like Spring Meadows
Weren't shown on the map.
The Seven-Eleven
Was our lone country store,
Now way beyond here
They've built a bunch more.
Lee, Davis and Stonewall
Lent their names to the schools
Which stood all alone
'Til the new zoning rules.
With new shopping centers
The farmer's field molts,
Once "way in the country"
Was Westhaven and Holts.
Mechanicsville you snored along
But change has come so fast,
I wonder if your rural air
Will stand a chance to last?
I long for your fields and occasional cows;
What will happen to your charms
When bowling alleys stand beside
The creeks that watered farms?
Mechanicsville, I've been away,
While growing business buys you;
When time returns me to your arms,
How will I recognize you?
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