Rousing reason to arise! No problem here in Cape Breton however---- last night one stayed up with high winds, rain, and power outage. The generator, the wood stove , and a flashlight provided the nightly entertainment. Is there a song for going to bed in the morning?
My theme song! How I dislike the rising bell! Someone should cut the bell rope!
Back in the old days when a brother was assigned to knocking on doors to get everyone up for meditation, one of the fathers in the seminary, instead of responding “Deo gratias”, responded by cocking a shot gun, or so the story goes. I’m sure Father would have appreciated the sentiment expressed in this song….as I do today!
Hahaaa, Father! That's funny! I used to be a morning person, but then I met and married bona fide Night Owl. He gets his work done by burning the midnight oil. Now my uncle, a life-long dairy farmer, had to get up at 4 AM every day to milk the cows and then turn them out to pasture. And he didn't even have a bugler to "encourage" him. Can you imagine that routine? The rest of us have it easy.
Irving Berlin certainly was a true patriotic genius. Thank you, Debra, for providing access to his surprisingly fine tenor voice. Another of his songs from this movie humorously describes what a soldier would face upon answering the bugler: "This is the Army Mr. Jones, no private rooms or telephones, you had your breakfast in bed before, but you won't have it there anymore!"
I love the song, "This is the Army." So clever and really TRUE. The good-heartedness of the man is just overwhelming. He was an American "up by you own bootstraps" success story and by all accounts a deeply kind and good man.
Debra, a PERFECT song to accompany this week's Word of the Week. What a genius, and though the Fates decreed that I was never to be in THAT august company, I am certainly grateful that I can recognize and appreciate genius when I see and/or hear it:)
Barbara, I always felt like I was living those years second-hand by the music and the old movies and old TV. It was far from a perfect world, but it was more human .. and filled with ordinary and extraordinary people of great discipline and character. The more I learn about Irving Berlin, the more I LOVE him.
Adrian, I was just saying to Barbara (above) how much I love Irving Berlin the more I read about him. You will appreciate this. He and his first wife woke one Christmas morning to find that their baby son had died of SIDS. Evidently the family spent every subsequent Christmas in mourning. But he loved Christmas, and after his first wife died he created a notable "scandal" when he married a Roman Catholic. But in his lifetime he won several commendations from civic groups for building friendship between Jews and Christians. Berlin knew persecution and suffering from a young age, having had to flee with his family from the Russian pogroms when he was only a child of five. He saw his home burned to the ground. His father died when he was only I think about 10 or 11 years old, and at 15 he left school and home to go make his way in the world and not be a burden to his very poor family. What a different world, and his natural lot in it was not particularly propitious. But he made the very best of what was available to him, didn't he? And he was generous almost to a fault.
Thank you. I think of this song often, since I, too, hate to get up in the morning! Thank you for the stories of Berlin’s fundraising efforts. Wow!
Rousing reason to arise! No problem here in Cape Breton however---- last night one stayed up with high winds, rain, and power outage. The generator, the wood stove , and a flashlight provided the nightly entertainment. Is there a song for going to bed in the morning?
Oh Elizabeth! I miss YOU but not the CB power outages! Maybe I should write a parody of this one for CB-ers??
My theme song! How I dislike the rising bell! Someone should cut the bell rope!
Back in the old days when a brother was assigned to knocking on doors to get everyone up for meditation, one of the fathers in the seminary, instead of responding “Deo gratias”, responded by cocking a shot gun, or so the story goes. I’m sure Father would have appreciated the sentiment expressed in this song….as I do today!
Hahaaa, Father! That's funny! I used to be a morning person, but then I met and married bona fide Night Owl. He gets his work done by burning the midnight oil. Now my uncle, a life-long dairy farmer, had to get up at 4 AM every day to milk the cows and then turn them out to pasture. And he didn't even have a bugler to "encourage" him. Can you imagine that routine? The rest of us have it easy.
Irving Berlin certainly was a true patriotic genius. Thank you, Debra, for providing access to his surprisingly fine tenor voice. Another of his songs from this movie humorously describes what a soldier would face upon answering the bugler: "This is the Army Mr. Jones, no private rooms or telephones, you had your breakfast in bed before, but you won't have it there anymore!"
I love the song, "This is the Army." So clever and really TRUE. The good-heartedness of the man is just overwhelming. He was an American "up by you own bootstraps" success story and by all accounts a deeply kind and good man.
Debra, a PERFECT song to accompany this week's Word of the Week. What a genius, and though the Fates decreed that I was never to be in THAT august company, I am certainly grateful that I can recognize and appreciate genius when I see and/or hear it:)
Barbara, I always felt like I was living those years second-hand by the music and the old movies and old TV. It was far from a perfect world, but it was more human .. and filled with ordinary and extraordinary people of great discipline and character. The more I learn about Irving Berlin, the more I LOVE him.
I agree completely.
We just watched Holiday Inn last night! What an absolute genius. Glad to find out he was such a decent man, too. Thank you!
Adrian, I was just saying to Barbara (above) how much I love Irving Berlin the more I read about him. You will appreciate this. He and his first wife woke one Christmas morning to find that their baby son had died of SIDS. Evidently the family spent every subsequent Christmas in mourning. But he loved Christmas, and after his first wife died he created a notable "scandal" when he married a Roman Catholic. But in his lifetime he won several commendations from civic groups for building friendship between Jews and Christians. Berlin knew persecution and suffering from a young age, having had to flee with his family from the Russian pogroms when he was only a child of five. He saw his home burned to the ground. His father died when he was only I think about 10 or 11 years old, and at 15 he left school and home to go make his way in the world and not be a burden to his very poor family. What a different world, and his natural lot in it was not particularly propitious. But he made the very best of what was available to him, didn't he? And he was generous almost to a fault.