SECOND STREET
I want to tell you a story
About a decent man and his loving wife
About a beautiful son they so loved
About the human heart
There's nothing special about this street
There are a thousand others like it
A simple paved lane lined with houses
In a small Illinois' town
The houses are old but well kept
A shady road lined with towering trees
Lawns grow thick and green in summer
Blanketed with white snow when it's cold
But in the middle of this neighborhood
Was a house that stood out from the rest
A home it seemed of some comfort
At least as you looked from Second Street
Jake and his wife, Sarah had bought it
Soon after the Second World War
And in it they raised their boy, Danny
The only child that they would know
This son they loved and cherished
Providing the very best they could
Loving, fun years they shared here
As straight and strong he did grow
Sarah taught her son compassion,
Patience, manners and virtue
Instilling in him a kindness
Morality and faith
Now Jake, a 'tin can' Navy Vet
Was a bit crusty now and than
But his lessons to his son
Where to be the makings of a man
From Jake he learned about nature
Of hard work and to keep your word
To never look for trouble
But to never from it run
Jake showed him how to have fun
And that he must stick up for others
About duty to his country, courage and honor
But mostly they taught him about love
There were others who had an influence
On this fine young man
One, a leader gone to soon
"Ask not" was what Danny heard
In '67 Danny turned eighteen
And above the pleas from Jake and Sarah
A call to duty he answered
Danny enlisted in the Marines
The training was rough,
The lessons were hard
But Danny passed them all with orders
To some far away place called Viet Nam
The last day home Danny made a promise
As father and son embraced
For as his mother sadly wept he said
"Mom and Dad, I will come home"
How the mood changed
In this old house on Second Street
With the nightly news showing scenes of a war
That could not be won and no one seemed to want
Jake and Sarah watched every night
Hoping for a glimpse of their boy
For just a chance to see his face
God they missed him so
They also sadly watched the protest marches
As they picked up pace
The demonstrations, the sit-ins
Their country tearing apart
Where was the country's support that Jake once had known?
Why were the boys even over there?
If this was what the war was to be
Then let's just bring our boys back home
Danny's letters home too had changed
Excited and confident at first
Now messages of dread and sorrow
Were in each and every line, war was taking its toll
The time went by so slowly all that fateful year
Thirteen months in country was what Danny had to do
Each month seeming longer than the last
In August his letters stopped
Then late in cold October
Sarah was smiling as she answered the front door
For as Jake had kissed her good-bye this morning he said,
"Smile Mother, in just thirty days our boy will be home."
Standing there cold and solemn
Was a man in Marine dress blues
Another dressed all in black
A telegram they handed her as they said, "I'm sorry"
'We regret," was all she read
Before crumbling to the floor
Jake was summoned home from work
To read the dreaded news
"We regret to inform you that your son,
Was reported Missing In Action
Near Quang Nam, South Viet Nam
15 September 1968"
There were few answers for the grieving parents
Just that the helicopter Danny was in
Had been shot down
No witnesses, no survivors, no remains
Later that night
They held each other quietly
Jake embracing, slightly rocking his bride
Together, each lost in their own silent grief
Then Jake spoke softly to his Sarah
"Now Mother remember what he told us
And we taught him to keep his word
Danny promised he would come home."
With that Jake gently kissed her cheek
He rose to put on his jacket and hat
And grabbing his pack of Luckies
He sadly moved towards the front door
And while Sarah sat softly weeping
Jake went outside to the street
And started a routine of waiting
Which would last till his dying day
From that moment on you would see him
A Lucky Strike in his lips slowly burning
For every day and night he would be pacing, waiting
In front of this sad, broken home on Second Street
Now the weeks turned into months
The months turned into years
Still the couple waited
And watched
They watched as boys that Danny had known
Came home from the war, one by one
And noticed how different they were
And once home how their families, were no longer interested in this war
They watched as the war escalated
As the protests also turned violent
Then sadly watched as America withdrew
And asked themselves, "What had it all been for?"
They watched anxiously as the POWs returned
Hoping Danny would be there too
And grieved anew when he wasn't
Yet still they hoped and waited
Then came the fall of Saigon
With the whole disgrace on TV
The Communists waving their flags
In their final victory
Sometime during those years another telegram had come
With the regrets of a grateful nation
Danny was officially listed as 'Killed In Action'
But still no remains, no one to bury, nothing to mourn
And with that telegram came a check
A life insurance payoff for ten thousand dollars
A check that Jake and Sarah refused to cash
The money never spent
And while Jake paced back and forth
Sarah was loosing her mind
Still weeping through the night
She now talked to Danny, as if he were there
Danny's room was never changed
And Sarah would spend long hours sitting there
With his baseball glove sitting on a dresser
A high school letterman's jacket hanging on the door
Books and yellowed papers stacked neatly on his unused desk
She made and remade his bed as if he would be using it tonight
And washed his old worn clothes every week
All was witnessed by his youthful image in the many pictures on the walls
The years went by, ten then twenty
Neighbors moved away, new ones moved in
The new people knew little of what had happened
Most cared even less
So Jake and Sarah, the reason for their grief forgotten
Became the butt of the neighborhood jokes and gossip
All the kids simply knew them
As that crazy old couple on Second Street
Sarah with her madness now also became ill
Weakened, frail and fevered she was taken to her bed
And as she lay there dying
She kept asking for her son
Late one afternoon as Jake sat beside her bed
She asked for Danny's picture and placed it on her chest
Wrapping her arms around it
As if she was embracing him
Smiling at Jake she whispered
"Dear I love you so,
I am so sorry to leave you now
But to Danny I must go"
And with that same sweet smile
The one that Jake had loved so well
Sarah finally found her peace
And went to Danny's side
Sarah was quietly buried
In a cemetery down the street
Jake would some day join her there
But for now he would still wait
For as long as he was alive
He believed his boy Danny
Would someday still come home
So on and on he paced
But little did Jake know
How soon he would again be with his Sarah
For just three months later
While shoveling new snow
A pain hit hard in his chest
And laid him down
Right where he always paced
Out on Second Street
It's been many years now since Jake was laid to rest
The house sits vacate still
And neighbors say that if you wait till late at night
To wander down the street
On quiet nights you can hear Sarah softly sobbing
In that big old house
And see Jake's lit cigarette shinning in the dark
As the old man paces and still waits for his son's return
But I do not believe these tales
For I know what they do not
In '96 an American search team
Found the remains of six Marines buried at a crash sight
Danny was found and now rests beside his parents
So Jake and Sarah no longer wait for his return
Young Danny had kept his promise
And returned home to Second Street