Way back in 1972 one of my best friends, Tony Afonso, introduced me to the music of Neil Diamond, in particular the song “Brooklyn Roads.”

This was accomplished by the incredibly technical act of placing a vinyl album on a turntable then carefully placing the needle arm on the particular cut, in this case the fifth one.

Why we didn’t listen to the ones before that song may have been a criticism of the quality of those earlier tunes, but the truth is lost to time.

Since then, along with a myriad of other Diamond tunes, at least the ones before Forever in Blue Jeans, I’ve listened to this song hundreds of times. Whenever I have my older grandson (the newest one is still a bit too young) to myself in the car, and thus full command of the music selection—after the Sesame Street Playlist of course—I introduce him to quality music.

Everything from Gregorian Chant (something I got his mother to embrace), Led Zeppelin, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, Chicago, Simon & Garfunkel (both solo and together) to Bach, Holst, and Mozart.

So the other day was Neil Diamond. And Brooklyn Roads came on first. As we listened, the lyrics jumped out at me. Diamond sang of a different time in America when families tended to be less scattered to the wind. When young kids used just their imaginations more than technology for entertainment. When, it seemed, times were a bit simpler.

The reality of some of this is the ameliorating effect of nostalgia, but there are several lines which resonate with me to this day as I have many memories of doing the same thing.

I built me a castle with dragons and kings
And I'd ride off with them
As I stood by my window
And looked out on those Brooklyn roads

Diamond’s view was of a city, mine was the sky above Cumberland, Rhode Island and the woods surrounding us. Different views, similar imaginations.

In the last verse, Diamond sings of a different world. He, like I, long gone from that first home.

Does some other young boy come home to my room?
Does he dream what I did
As he stands by my window
And looks out on those Brooklyn roads?

I hope several more generations of young people will look out their windows and “dream what I did.”

I hope we have not lost our ability to imagine, surrendering to the lure of technology. If I accomplish nothing else in my life, in the end if I can look back and see the gift of imagination still living in my daughter and grandchildren it will be a life well lived.

Brooklyn Roads by Neil Diamond

If I close my eyes, I can almost hear my mother
Callin’, “Neil, go find your brother
Daddy’s home and it’s time for supper, hurry on”
And I see two boys racin’ up two flights of staircase
Squirmin’ into Papa’s embrace
And his whiskers warm on their face, where’s it gone?
Oh, where’s it gone?

Two floors above the butcher
First door on the right
And life filled to the brim as I stood by my window
And looked out on those Brooklyn roads

I can still recall the smells of cookin’ in the hallways
Rubbers drying in the doorways
And report cards I was always afraid to show
Mama’d come to school and as I sit there softly crying
Teacher’d say, “He’s just not trying
Got a good head if he’d apply it, but you know yourself
It’s always somewhere else”

I built me a castle with dragons and kings
And I’d ride off with them
As I stood by my window
And looked out on those Brooklyn roads

Thought of going back
But all I’d see are strangers’ faces
And all the scars that love erases
But as my mind walks through those places
I’m wonderin’ what’s come of them?

Does some other young boy come home to my room?
Does he dream what I did
As he stands by my window
And looks out on those Brooklyn roads?