It was a crime-heavy week, and our Patch troubadour Kevin Trudo came out of it worried and concerned.

This week’s song is a plea for sanity, and its angry first verse gives way to its plaintive last line. It brings together stories both good and bad, all seen from the light of a Channahon factory’s gas-fueled flame. 

The good comes first: we have the story of a Yorkville man who has played Santa Claus for 47 years, Montgomery village officials working on a solution to a rusty water problem, and Pat Gavros, who was named Oswego Patch’s Person of the Year.

But then we have the tale of a couple allegedly leaving their kids in the car while doing drugs at a Darien gas station, the story of a woman arrested for allegedly offering sex to a Naperville cop while her kids were in the car, a serial arsonist in Plainfield, a stolen car driven through a home in Bolingbrook, and unconfirmed reports of shots being fired in Romeoville.

Kevin has wrapped all that up in a song called "Rules and Exceptions." The lyrics are printed below for your convenience. For more on Kevin Trudo, check out his Facebook page, and head back here next week for another tune.

Rules and Exceptions

Some folks should never reproduce
As my mother says they lack the sense God gave a goose
I guess they might be fine with the right kick in the caboose
But I'm inclined to curate a little space

Other folks you're proud as punch are here
I mean the man's played Santa Claus for 47 years
Whoever gets the Boulder Hill water to run clear
And Pat's a patriot you can't debase

I just wish they were the rule not the exception
A lot of folks don't pass inspection
While of course the caveat "allegedly" applies
Don't bring your kids out when you go get high

It's rotten thing to wreck somebody's home
Torch the car in the garage or make their living room your road
All the things we do lit in the Aux Sable gas light glow
Ghost shots ring out somewhere down the road

I just wish that gaslight only lit up good things
But that ain't the way the world works and that ain't all this life brings
None of us knows these whole stories or the tragedies supplied
I just wish a kid a chance to be a child.