That Hospital - Loudon Wainwright III

Steve, little Bucky Herdman, Pat O’Boyle, and me

Drank two cases of beer one night;

the VW hit a tree

Bucky wound up in the emergency room;

this was sixty-four or five

Well, I hear he’s living in Florida now, lucky to be alive

Oh, that hospital!

Oh, that hospital!

Well, my dad freaked out and he wound up there one Christmas way back when

Now I’m never gonna see him;

he was my age now back then

I kept staring out of that window;

I could not look at his face

He said, «I won’t be home for Christmas, son;

you’re gonna have to take my place

That hospital

Gonna stay there in that hospital.»

I was there again in seventy-six;

the wife was having a D and C

But in the end, she couldn’t go through with it, so three left: she, and me

And that little girl who was born there, who escaped that scrape with fate

A few months ago in Montreal I watched her graduate

That hospital

She was born there in that hospital

Yeah, my sister was born in that hospital too, and now my mother’s in there

I took the train to see her, Lord, and I sat in that visitor’s chair

Father was angry, so afraid;

this was not a blessed event

Now I’m riding back on that train, wondering where our lives went

That hospital

I keep going back

Hey, I could wind up in there;

maybe so could you

Anything can happen when there’s nothing we can do;

And if you come to see me, Lord, and you sit in that visitor’s chair

Take something home from that gift shop so you’ll have a souvenir

From that hospital