A Song For My Town

Five years ago, I was in this rather melancholy mood after listening to five songs that were submitted to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as "Pittsburgh songs". I hated every one of them, so with a tiny tear in my eye and some words wanting to be written down, I wrote Fire & Steel, which I feel is a true Pittsburgh song. Now, all I need is for the Pittsburgh City Council to agree with me on this and my legacy as a Western Pennsylvanian will be sealed.

Last night, I was in the same sort of mood when this just exploded on to my computer keyboard:

My Smock Pennsylvania Home

© Words by Bob Pegritz


Not long after Lincoln spoke in Gettysburg town
A young German man and his wife bought some ground
Less than two hundred acres from the Sharpless estate
Would make for a place to call home.

Young Sam sold some land to a mining concern
Then houses sprung up for the men who would earn
A poor worker’s wages way down in the mine
In a pit where the devil calls home


We sang as we shopped in the company store
On Monday the women hung clothes on the line
And waited for Andy and Teddy and Mike
To come home from working the Colonial Mine

The children had games that their grandparents played
Doors had no locks and at dinner we prayed
Thanked God at St. Hedwig for treating us right
And blessing our lives and our home


We sang as we shopped in the company store
On Monday the women hung clothes on the line
And waited for Andy and Teddy and Mike
To come home from working the Colonial Mine

Come back up the hill where Heaven is found
Relive the old glories on that holy ground
And hold on to memories close in our hearts
In Smock, Pennsylvania, our home


We sang as we shopped in the company store
On Monday the women hung clothes on the line
And waited for Andy and Teddy and Mike
To come home from working the Colonial Mine

We sang as we shopped in the company store
On Monday the women hung clothes on the line
And waited for Andy and Teddy and Mike
To come home from working the Colonial Mine

This is for Sam and Andy and Teddy and Mike.

And you.