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16778 CR 5  |  Mead, CO 80542  |  970.535.4936 |  Historic_Highlandlake@msn.com
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Music in The Community
 
  • Longmont Ledger, Friday, Oct. 3, 1879:
    To the Ladies of Highlandlake and Vicinity. The members of the Independent Cornet Band wish to return thanks for the kindness tendered them and also the speakers in the way of substantial refreshments and delicacies on the night of the railroad meeting. It was the pleasantest occasion on record for the band boys and one which they will not soon forget.
     
  • Paul Mead wrote a song  extolling the advantages of planting sugar beets instead of wheat in order to entice the railroad to come to town. At the time, Highlandlake was continuing a 30 year effort to bring the railroad. In the end, the railroad came, not through Highlandlake, but through the eastern border of Paul Mead's farm. While the words to Paul's song have come down to us through history, the actual musical accompaniment has not.
The Railroad Song  --  Written and sung by Paul Mead--1901

 
 

1.  If you want to have a railroad,
And not just an old bobtail road,
Running up to Highlandlake;
You just raise the sugar beets,
And we will bet the treats,
That we will build the road thru Highlandlake. 

2.  Just you raise two thousand acres,
All you hayseed Highlandlaker’s,
If you want to take the cake,
They must test 15 percent, sir,
But we sure you will assent, sir,
And you’ll get the road to Highlandlake.

 3.  And then all the lads and lasses –
Can see the engine as it passes,
Hauling our stuff away,
Saving labor for horses,
Giving grain where now the loss is,
Won’t it be a big thing, hey! 

4.  It will haul your grain and taters,
It will cut the rate of freighters,
This road they call the B&M.
It will carry lads and lasses,
It will give the band boys passes,
Hurrah then for the B&M!

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Chorus:
Just hear that bell a ringing,
Tis sweet I do declare,
And hear the air brakes singing,
When they stop and blow off air.

5.  It will raise the price of land, sir,
And it will create demand, sir,
For the products of the farms.
It will make a little city
And it will be a dreadful pity,
If you let this chance slip by. 

6.  When you see a good thing, grab it,
Or twill be like Woodley’s rabbits,
It will never, never grab you.
If now you are too lazy,
You will end up going crazy,
Just to hurt the thing that now hurts you.

7.  Just hear the whistle blowing,
Tis great, you’ll all agree,
And next the train is slowing,
Going to stop for you and me.

 

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