All the Gerken crews
working Who Road
Liked construction a lot…
But one Grinch
Who lived on North Who Road,
Did NOT!

And he hated construction! The whole construction season!
We can’t tell you why. No one here knows the reason.
It could be it disrupted his daily commute.
Or that he was, perhaps, a sad, cheerless coot.
But the most likely reason, I happen to think,
May have been that he just liked causing a stink.

Whatever the reason,
His commute or his blues,
He stood there each morning, hating the crews.

He stared from his window with a furious frown
At the diligent workers as they all hunkered down.
For he knew every crew that was working Who Road,
Was making more progress with each asphalt load.

“And they’re taking great pride,” he snarled with a sneer,
“They’re enjoying their work in their bright Gerken Gear.”

Then he growled, “Why, for weeks I’ve put up with it now!
I MUST stop construction from happening! But HOW?”
For tomorrow, he knew, Gerken crew girls and boys,
Would rush back bright and early and start making noise.

Oh, the NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

Then he got an idea! AN AWFUL IDEA!
He chuckled, and clucked, “What a wonderful, awful idea.”

Right before Christmas, while the crews lay asleep in the night,
The grinchy old fool snuck off to their job site.
He slithered and slunk, disguised by sly means,
Around the vast work zone, and he STOLE THEIR MACHINES.

The planers! And loaders! Drum rollers! And pavers!
The millers! And grinders! And ALL excavators.
He took the whole fleet. And this—this makes me quiver:
Why, that Grinch even took the 50-foot Concrete Conveyor and Mixer.

“PoohPooh to the crews!” he was grinchishly humming.
“They’ll be finding out soon that no construction is coming!”

It was quarter past dawn…all the crews were arriving,
And those crews began working, despite all his conniving.
As he stared at the workers, the Grinch doubted his eyes!
What he saw them all doing was a shocking surprise!

For every worker from Gerken, with jobs big and small,
Was working their hardest! With no apparatus at all!
They worked without backhoes! Without multi-terrains!
They worked without compactors, crawlers, or cranes!

He HADN’T stopped construction.
IT CAME!
Even with no 50-foot Concrete Conveyor and Mixer,
It came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his stunned look froze to his face,
Stood puzzling and wondering how they kept up the pace.

He wondered awhile, looking out from his door.
Then the Grinch thought of something that he hadn’t before!
“Maybe progress,” he thought, “doesn’t come from equipment.
Maybe progress…perhaps…comes from boundless commitment!”

And what happened then…?
Well…at Gerken they say
That the Grinch became happy,
And changed in his ways.

That very minute, he felt his heart lighten,
And his stance on construction? He allowed it to brighten.
And he brought back the pavers! The loaders and rollers.
And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch drove the big 50-footer!