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I used to work in a corner store on Shirley Avenue in Revere Mass.
At the time this was a dangerous place and from what I've seen it's not much better today.
I wrote this song about it, a long time ago.



The Ave.
By Bill Murray

(First Verse)
The Ave is named Shirley but she ain't no lady,
She's the meanest street I've ever known.
I used to work there eight hours a day,
and I couldn't wait to get home.

(Chorus)
From the Ave,
what else do they have?
Through no fault of their own,
They've got to call that place home,
The Ave.

(Second Verse)
The street is filled with terror,
old people fear for their lives.
The street is riddled with crime and drugs,
and ten-year old's carry knives.

(Chorus)
On the Ave,
What else do they have?
From what I've been shown,
You shouldn't walk home alone
On The Ave.

(Third Verse)
The children are going to suffer,
From deeds they haven't done.
Their wits will be keen and they will grow up mean,
When they should be having fun.

(Chorus)
On the Ave,
what else do they have?
Through no fault of their own,
They have to call that place home,
The Ave.

billyb0y,
I remember you mentioning this song a few days ago.I also recall you saying you wrote this in the 70's.When I read this it was sort of a relief b/c I always feel that my generation (the hip-hop generation)is the reason all this began for the some reason (I think it's called the media ........oh and Bill Cosby)

It shows me that things have been bad for a while and the cycle continues.The kids you were talking about being ten years old are now probably in their 30's and what are they up to now?Hopefully they worked their way out of the negative situation but they are probably dead or behind bars.

Here is one of the biggest things.I have worked with people in the "hood" and have seen their kids going from being innocent kids, to becoming an actual "products of the environment" going to juvenile and worse.Man it's sad and it shouldn't have to be that way but it's a cycle.

When did you write this seems like I you said 73'?

By the way this is great and it kind of reminds me of stuff Ice T would've done!!!

bingolong,

[Font size=7 face=s color=red]1400 !!!!!!!!!!![/font]

I didn't mention a year when I wrote it....the "73" you remembered is the age of the old lady that told me the dirty joke
[Font size=4 face=t color=navy]But!!!! You are correct about the year!!!![/font]
Thank you very much for the critique!
I will say this Bingo...there were white kids amd black kids and latino kids and oriental kids and I don't ever remember them fighting each other, but if you came into the nieghbor looking for trouble, you would find it.
Sometimes they would come into the store and ask me if the could borrow some money and I would tell them that "The milk chest needs to be filled" or "The floor needs to be swept" or washed.
I would pay them out of my pocket because I was just a worker...I didn't own the store.
Also, If I let them borrow they would probably never pay me back and if they did pay me back they would have to rip somebody else off to pay me back so that's why I made them work.
I do remember reading in the newspaper about a few of them and none of that was good, arson, Murder, one got killed by a bus walking while he was drunk, two brothers, while in Ca., were in a stolen car, and got involved in a police chase and were killed in an accident.
But a lot of them, I never heard anything about, so I can only hope.

billyb0y,
Thanks Man!!

But lets just hope that those you didn't hear about were the ones that made it off "The Ave".......

dumbass,
Nope....I've only played it on my 30 year old Casio keyboard