This town once proclaimed itself as:
The Onion City of The World!
But somewhere along the line
The onion fell out of favor
For unknown reasons of flavor
Of furrows and farming
Maybe even global warming
Who can say
But it does not proclaim to be such today
These days one can see a lot of sugar beets and soybeans
Knee high by the Fourth of July corn and assorted greens
I think I may have once seen a field of potatoes
But of the onion there is no sign
Once proudly proclaimed
And in retrospect almost in vain
The mighty Onion City is not the place it once was
The railroad spur that once serviced the town
That dead ended at the river by the library
Is many decades long gone
Marked now by it's slightly raised roadbed
And cleared arrow strait path dead South for twenty miles
The path that gently bends itself back into the mainline
The tracks where "Mackinac Mac" once fired coal and turned wrench
The two crossed runways of the grassy airport
The pride of the Onion City in 1936
Are overgrown with scrub pine
One quarter covered by the local pickle factory
The town billed itself as "The Perch Capital" in the 1970's
And it seemed as if it was for years
Fishermen and their families coming every year
Good times and good fish
But the times or the fish didn't last
Some blame the water levels that went down
Making much of the beachfront a marsh grassy mess
Or invasive species taking the beloved perch away
Gas prices
The economy
The water fun land is closed down
Half the restaurants are gone
'For Sale' signs mark far too many vacation cottages
The grocery store even went away
Which all sounds tragic
But really it's not
It's the once every four decade oppourtunity
For the town of Au Gres to reinvent itself once again
To become the place to go:
To be the unchallenged Capital or City of Something once again
The Onion City of The World!
But somewhere along the line
The onion fell out of favor
For unknown reasons of flavor
Of furrows and farming
Maybe even global warming
Who can say
But it does not proclaim to be such today
These days one can see a lot of sugar beets and soybeans
Knee high by the Fourth of July corn and assorted greens
I think I may have once seen a field of potatoes
But of the onion there is no sign
Once proudly proclaimed
And in retrospect almost in vain
The mighty Onion City is not the place it once was
The railroad spur that once serviced the town
That dead ended at the river by the library
Is many decades long gone
Marked now by it's slightly raised roadbed
And cleared arrow strait path dead South for twenty miles
The path that gently bends itself back into the mainline
The tracks where "Mackinac Mac" once fired coal and turned wrench
The two crossed runways of the grassy airport
The pride of the Onion City in 1936
Are overgrown with scrub pine
One quarter covered by the local pickle factory
The town billed itself as "The Perch Capital" in the 1970's
And it seemed as if it was for years
Fishermen and their families coming every year
Good times and good fish
But the times or the fish didn't last
Some blame the water levels that went down
Making much of the beachfront a marsh grassy mess
Or invasive species taking the beloved perch away
Gas prices
The economy
The water fun land is closed down
Half the restaurants are gone
'For Sale' signs mark far too many vacation cottages
The grocery store even went away
Which all sounds tragic
But really it's not
It's the once every four decade oppourtunity
For the town of Au Gres to reinvent itself once again
To become the place to go:
To be the unchallenged Capital or City of Something once again
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