THE HOUSATONIC VALLEY

As the evening shadows lengthen,
And all nature is at rest,
All my thoughts are turning back there
To the place I love the best.
.... Oh, that quiet, peaceful valley
.... That I left so long ago,
.... Where we sat and dreamed together,
.... Watched the Housatonic flow.

this is used as a refrain, sung to the first part of the tune:

As the evening shadows lengthen,
And all nature is at rest,
All my thoughts are turning back there
To the place I love the best.

I still see the little cottage
Nestled in that Berkshire dell,
Where the birds were always singing
'Round the home we loved so well.
.... All was joy, and never sorrow
.... In that Eden of the blest,
.... And we knew that each tomorrow
.... Would bring peace and perfect rest.

(refrain)

Since I left that lovely valley,
Left a home and all behind,
I'm a wanderer in the wasteland,
Never knowing peace of mind.
.... But I soon will go back yonder,
.... For I know she'll waiting be;
.... In the Housatonic Valley
.... There'll be joy for her and me.

(refrain once again)

Words by Clayton E. Stickles
Melody by G. F. Root (The Vacant Chair)
Published in Carl Carmer's Songs of the Rivers of America (NY, 1942)

The Housatonic River runs from Western Massachusetts down through western Connecticut to the Sound. My boys grew up canoeing on the Housy, which forms the boundary between our town of Sharon and the neighboring Cornwall. Nice river, but you can't eat the trout taken from it, thanks to the PCBs deposited in it by the GE plant in Pittsfield.

Well, I warned you it was sentimental goo!

Sandy