© 1990 Raven Heart Music (ASCAP)

From Herdman, Hills, Mangsen’s Voices and Anne and Michael’s Paradise Lost and Found

This here loom is fifty years old
Me and Mary we’re a little older
We’ve been here since 1918
Now the factory’s closing down
This loom came from another mill
That was falling into a river
Me and Mary, we came here
From Austria together

And on a hot summer night
You could hear these looms
They never shut them down
Weavin’ and spinnin’ the silken dreams
Of the workers in Allentown

Back in the days when I moved here
To try my hands as a weaver
We made silk that could circle the world
More than thirty times around
We made silk for the Navy flags
Of the finest Bemberg thread
We made silk that could beat the best
That’s what we always said

Now me and Mary and all these looms
We’re the last ones at the factory
Sick or expired or just plain tired
All those weavers come and gone
Young folks now they don’t see the sense
Of a skill whose time is run
Stop the clock and close up shop
This silk mill’s day is done