I grew up in Rockland County; New York's southern most triangle on the Western side of the Hudson River. Ask anyone from there where they are from and they'll simply answer "Rockland" , not Nyack or Suffern (its most well known towns) just "Rockland".

Before the Palisades Parkway was built in the 1960's, swooping you off the first exit of Manhattan's George Washington Bridge 15 or so miles through New Jersey and comfortably back into the Empire State, It was all farm and forest. But the Palisades brought Rockland into the suburban fold and the tract housing and subdivisions took over.

In the Eighties, as with so much of the megalopolis of the northeast, things boomed.Split levels begat condo's, the main arteries of the county snaked into one long strip mall, and so it goes...

I no longer live in Rockland but having had an opportunity in 2007 to frequently drive a stretch of the county's westernmost point, the tip of the arrowhead so to speak, it was impossible not to notice the heavy machinery and colossal staging area that was amassing right in the heart of what is known (as if from some fable) as the Sterling Forest. Lakes and woods, streams and marsh rule the winding landscape in the belly of the Ramapo Mountains. I began to grieve again. No, not The Sterling Forest. They can't develop The Sterling Forest ?!  

With this as a backdrop, the imagery of the continued paving-over of my old stomping grounds in my minds eye, I took to writing "Long Meadow"; named for the stretch of road that snakes its way through.

It turns out the construction was for a major pipeline connecting the fresh water abundance of the mountainous "upstate" to the thirsty and dirty needs of "The City".

So here's to NOT making assumptions that everything turns into a parking lot in the end.


LONG MEADOW

I've seen it falling in long meadow
kept right on falling up till it snowed
the lakes all through there all have stories they hold
but there frozen in long meadow

Gravel and weeds by the side of the road
that pond's not sure it's nothing more than a puddle
It floods in the deluge then turns into mud
in the springtime in long meadow

chorus:
Long may the grass grow
long may the breeze blow
long may we dream of this place
This place that we call home and we rest from our rat race

It took all morning to hike to the hole
where the fishing was all right  but the swimming was better
we'd jump from that rope from that tree from that stone
in long meadow, dead center.

chorus

Now there are some houses and there are some boats
you can get to the lake now from the road through New Jersey
and the thruway is only five minutes away
Now they're paving up long meadow

chorus

I've seen it falling in long meadow
kept right on falling until it snowed
the lakes all through there all have stories they hold
but there frozen in long meadow