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Visit Central YMCA Alumni

December 2008 - Been working on some holiday songs. Managed to update my favorite. I'm going to try and perform it over the weekend. Thought you all might like the lyrics as a cheap Christmas card.

CLOUT CITY CHRISTMAS FANTASY 2008

(Win Stracke amended by Mike Felten)

Jesus went riding with old Santa Claus

And he went to the city where Daley was boss

On a cold and blustery Christmas Eve

Jesus found some things that were hard to believe

First we'll circle the city old Saint Nick did say

We'll see who's been rehabbed and who's moved away

And then when my sleigh isn't so loaded down

We'll go find the poor folks on the edges of town

If I were you that's where the presents I'd give

Where folks are out there struggling to live

My folks had hardly a pot they could stir

Until some wise men gave us gold, frankincense and myrrh

That stuff wouldn't cut it today said St. Nick

The gifts today are all shiny and slick

And he ho, ho, hoed while cracking his whip

And off they did go on their gift-giving trip

Besides Santa said as they skimmed the rooftops

This stuff's really paid for by the moms and the pops

What's more it's important to the economy

I'm just the symbol of giving said he

And they rode high above State Street's mercury lights

And the Magnificent Mile all glittering and bright

And to think that they do this in remembrance of me

Santa said, some on credit and some C.O.D.

They stopped for a moment at old city hall

Where the ward healers celebrated it all

They even hung a sign up there that read

"Give us this day our Daley bread"

And now Jesus said Let's visit the poor

And so they took off on a desolate tour

The factories were shuttered, the houses foreclosed

Cook County Jail was booming cells rows after rows

At a small storefront church they heard people pray

And away in the manger, Jesus did say

Some oxen and donkeys my vigil did keep

But some of these infants have rats where they sleep

And Jesus heard gunfire ring out in the night

And Santa wondered how many would die in the night

The gang bangers and dopers and kids in between

And if there was Christmas it was meager and mean .

That's enough said Jesus I don't like what I see

And to think this holiday is named after me

Thanks for the ride much obliged for the talk

But from here on out, I'd just rather walk

He saw all that was corrupt and all that was wrong

Then he saw those giving without expected reward

A group of young lawyers ignoring fat fees

Committed to fighting class inequity

He saw doctors more concerned with good health

Than insurance companies preoccupation with wealth

And hard, grizzled bikers batting out their brains

So ADC kids could have dolls and toy trains

So it's good-bye Clout City it seems I must go

It wasn't all bad let's just say it's so so

But Blago and Daley and even Barack