The River, Bruce Springsteen (1980) or where we find the World really is a small place

Bethlehem, PA

"I Come from down in the Valley, Where Mr when you're young, they bring you up to do just what your daddy done"

These are the opening words of Springsteens song, and though they are about New Jersey I've always seen the paralells with my hometown in the Welsh Valleys. Like the narrator in Springsteens song, I grew up in a town dominated by heavy industry where you dreamt of escape but the vast majority followed their fathers into the mine or the steelworks. Or did, the steelworks are long gone and the only reminder is a great scar that follows the path of the river through the valley. They've now begun to build houses and a school on the site in a desperate attempt to reclaim the town from it's industrial past and give it new life. Like the narrator in the River I have a relationship with my hometown where I feel safe and secure within it but I also felt that need to escape; and looking at the work along the valley floor I feel a real optimism about the future but the old doubts remain. Bethlehem, PA could equally be the scene of Sprinsteens song. A town raised on steel (the Billy Joel song, "Allentown" is about the same region) but now suffering the post industrial issues of unemployment etc... but instead of building houses, schools or shops the huge steel mills of Bethlehem have become a Casino... yes a Casino. Selling itself as the Vegas of the North, The Sands resort fills the huge industrial spaces left by the steel industry and brings in visitors for the slots and live music. I'm not sure what I feel about Casino's but for the people of Bethlehem it offers new opportunities and a brighter future. It was a strange place, part industrial town and part tourist trap and it only really made sense to me the next day when listening to Springsteen and the River came on that Bethlehem, PA could easily have been my hometown...