SERENADE: Sally Hume Besgrove passed along this poem composed by Lew Moffitt of Bradford, who was a friend and neighbor of her grandmother, Helen Hume.

Lew read the poem in the spring of 1954 at the Christening Party for the Erie Train Station weathervane, which Helen obtained and placed on the roof of her shop on U.S. Route 219.

“A Roof-Top Serenade”

For years I’ve watched the trains roll by

From lofty perch where I could spy

Departures prompt, arrivals late

Passenger trains, more often freight

Might leave my steeple and go away…

North, East, South and West I’d point

Sometimes I’d ache in every joint

Buffeted by wind and rain and snow

Like crazy … round and round I’d go

For miles and miles each year I’d race

Just goin’ round … not any place …

But when the trains went by no more

My life became an awful bore

You’d think that someone would recall

The days and nights I gave my all

My wind-blown frame began to rot

No one cared … guess they forgot …

Until one day — surprise … surprise

‘Twas hard for me to realize

At last some friend just wanted me

And sent two men to guarantee

That my descent from off that tip

Would be gentle … without a slip …

They sawed my spine, and with a rope

They lowered me from that steep slope

And when at last I reached the ground

‘Twas then to my delight I found

That never more I’d fret and fume

‘Cause I belonged to Helen Hume …

She fixed me up as good as new

And told me there were quite a few

Good points about me she admired

If I would do as she desired

Just sit and turn and take a rest

And sometimes point to East or West…

So now my life is filled with joy

As I begin in her employ

To shoot the breeze and point the way

For winds to blow each night and day

For many years I’ll live again

The lazy life of a Weather Vane.