Candyland - James McMurtry

Ugly pictures on the wall

Traffic outbound slowing to a crawl

Evening papers on the manicured lawns

It never ceases it just goes on and on

The people next door don’t mind at all

They’ve got 'em a spiked fence ten feet tall

In the candyland

In the candyland

Gray squirrel running down the telephone wire

Kids around the poolside screaming like cats on fire

Cats on fire chasing after the ice cream van

But that circus music’s got to be hell on the ice

cream man

He clips his roach and he hauls his load

Taking his half out of the middle of the road

The heels grow tall and the skirts hang low

There could be something here but they just won’t let

it show

Same old neighborhood with a colder feel

Just the curbs and drains left over from the new deal

Smooth young faces on the TV news

And They can read copy they don’t have to be real

Thinking back on the finer days

Remembering the pendulum swings both ways