I remembered the song of my great-grandfather: “It is Well With My Soul.”
My brother explains that the people from that bloodline were hobbits. They knew how to enjoy things. No, there was no wealth, but there was goodness.
I just finished reading “Sex and the Unreal City.” As we say out west, Boy howdy. And! Though I am a child of those good hymn-singing hobbit bloodlines, the current of the times took me downstream for a time, though I surely did know better. After college, working at a job in Yellowtail Park, I looked out the window where the local elk were going about the business of nature. Bulls did what bulls do (fight one another, challenge one another, pursue the females) while cows did what cows do (eat grass, and ignore the hubbub.). “Hmm,” thought my college-trained brain, “Males and females behave differently from each other. And no one has socialized them into these gender roles.”
What a delightful comment, thank you! And you know, I've never seen that -- but now that you mention it, I did just see it in the movie Cowboys, with John Wayne hiring a dozen local schoolboys to help him get his herd to town 400 miles away, because all the available men have got the gold bug and are not to be found. There's a scene between an old bull and a young one, and Wayne says to the boys that the same thing goes on again and again every year, and sometimes the old one wins, and sometimes the youngster wins. "The young one's got strength and speed," he says, "but the old one's got the sharp eye and experience." The loser has to retreat ...
It is a good thing that there are men and women. Each is and should be felt to be quite a mystery to the other -- sometimes a frustrating mystery, but still, why should we be alike? What's the fun in that? God bless you and yours!
How delightful. In the sixties my third graders and I used to take work breaks by singing the old folk tunes like "The Fox went out on a chilly night" The children loved it and so did I. Thanks for bringing back some sweet memories.
Nov 26, 2023·edited Nov 26, 2023Liked by Debra Esolen
As I was reading and watching and listening to the text and videos of this SAS episode, a distinct thought came into my head that I wanted to reply with. But before doing so, I did first read the (at this point, so far, anyway) fifteen comments and replies, and realized that they all seemed to have that particular distinct thing in common that I had wanted to comment on, except that I want to say it in a broader and more general manner.
And that broader aspect is about the "purpose" for Word & Song existing in general, but encapsulated well, I think, in this particular post for today. See, as I was reading your comments above, and especially in listening to the three variations on the song -- and even in those fifteen-so-far replies by readers and you -- I couldn't help thinking about what the "common theme" of all the different columns in this site might be. Yes, of course, as you've described before, Word & Song is intended to focus on, and hopefully bring back into our weary and withering society more common knowledge and appreciation of the Good, the True and the Beautiful. And how wonderful that goal is.
But I guess what struck me today was that somehow, just the idea of, and experience of, and expression of pure "JOY" (I can only emphasize it properly by typing it in all caps there) is what I think I "see" in essentially all the various types of articles and clips and such in Word & Song, whether of movies, hymns, poems, literary works, popular songs, word origins, or philosophical commentary.
And oddly enough (and I hope I can say this properly and meaningfully), that quality of joy EVEN applies to -- and perhaps ESPECIALLY applies to -- those entries that have, on their surface, a sense of melancholy, sadness, longing, disappointment, even some degree of horror or sorrow at times.
I realize that sounds almost contradictory, but I mean it sincerely. There is, after all, a way of approaching life and history and art and music and well, everything-don't-ya-know, with an attitude of what I can only describe as joy. And the loss of -- or at least a very strong indication that we are rapidly losing, if not already long there -- a "joyful" approach to life and art and all those things, is the "thing" of that "distinct thought" I mentioned above in my opening sentence.
For there is, even in, say, a war movie that Tony has commented on, or a looking-into-the-face-of-despair described by a poem like Ozymandias or "Crossing the Bar" where Tony writes "Yet he did not despair. He did not give up." For that is, I think, one of the great dangers of (as I described above) our weary and withering society, where even art and music seem at times to be bent on driving hatred and despair and ugliness into our very souls to somehow replace innate joy that God has given us.
And combating that seemingly-willing drive/dive into the abyss by our current cultural forces with a powerful sword of JOY (if you will) that can cut through the worldly morass if wielded confidently and with the skill and knowledge of the Esolens' daily/weekly effort in Word & Song, is, to me, THE unifying principal of the site. I am reminded of that passage in Acts when the high priest and council had Peter and the Apostles beaten and that then "they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name" AND (in a slightly different direction) the first line of the chorus from John Denver's song Matthew, "Yes, an' Joy was just a thing that he was raised on" that follows, even after the verse that ends, "He lost the farm and lost his family, lost the wheat and lost his home, but he found his family Bible, a faith as solid as a stone."
That is all. Thank you for Word & Song and the JOY it brings in all its manifestations. We need it these days.
Dear Stanley -- you describe Word and Song better than I could ever do. It's because when you're trying to bring that power into people's lives, you feel sometimes a bit sheepish, as if you had something really beautiful to show, but you know from the start that a lot of people will shrug at it or mock it, and it's not that you're afraid of the criticism, but it's as if it could hurt the beautiful thing itself, as if somebody threw mud or tar on it.
And after all, isn't one of the bonds of friendship a fellow-feeling for the same beautiful things? I think that C. S. Lewis put it in this way, as when you meet somebody like that, and you say, "You too? You see it too? How wonderful!" Imagine that a boy has some special place in the woods, that he finds fascinating or haunting or beautiful, he can hardly say why, and he is shy of taking anybody there, not because his feelings would be hurt, but because the person might not see, might not understand, and that would be a disappointment. He'd be disillusioned, except that it's not an illusion he'd be robbed of, but the truth of the place.
Where can we find beauty now, or delight, or just good hearty cheer? Here at Word and Song -- here at least. And as long as we're here, so will those invitations keep coming.
Wow, Stanley, I'm overwhelmed. Thank you for that encouraging note and for taking the time to write it out. One thing we determined on when we began Word & Song was really to put before anyone we could get to join in with our effort things UNLIKE the daily barrage of misery that modern life dishes up. We perhaps can't make those things go away, but, we thought, we can send out alternatives which focus on good things, large or small.
I recall talking with the daughter of my parents' best friends, a couple who were about 15 years their senior. The daughter is about 15 years MY senior, and we were reminiscing about our parents and what life was like growing up in that general era, and she said to me, "our parents knew how to HAVE FUN." And she was so right. They all grew up in extreme poverty, but they knew how to have fun, how to create fun, and how to take joy where it was to be found. In our times, I think it's gotten to the point for many of us that we must be purposeful about seeking good things to contemplate. If we don't we might indeed despair.
Great song! And really it was known by everyone when I was a kid. I learned it "along the way," and I recall also doing a little bit of square dancing in school to the tune. And that was when dancing at public gatherings was largely on the out, having been replaced by haphazard flailing. I ADORE the Liberace "Turkey in the Straw" (with variations!), and never saw it before yesterday, myself. Tony and I agreed that it reminded us in its zaniness of some of Victor Borge's musical humor. Borge was skilled pianist, too, but he made his reputation as a humorist. Liberace was a musical genius, clearly, who used showmanship to take great music to people of all backgrounds. This piece (which I am sure he composed himself) is an example of how -- with no words at all -- music can create the humor, with the entire setup done in his inimitable showmanlike style.
I am writing down some of my family memories, and wrote this passage not too long ago:
"My grandparents would frequently drive to San Bernardino to see us, and one evening, my father told me and my sister, 'Girls, why don’t you play Turkey in the Straw for your grandfather.'
So my sister and I took Grandfather by the hand. 'Come on, Grandfather,' I remember saying as we directed him to our bedroom. We put on the record, and I watched him smile as 'Turkey in the Straw' thrummed and crackled happily on the record player."
I wish I could find that version of the song that we played for him. As I recall, there was a lot of whistling in it.
Thank you for sharing that the song was known by everyone. I love knowing that my grandfather loved the song as much as he did. I will hold onto those details until I see him again. And I will look up Borge. I am CONTINUOUSLY learning from you and Dr. Esolen.
Oh Dominique, you just made my day. What a lovely memory of your father and your grandfather, and doesn't it just demonstrate that cultural memory of something as light and just good-hearted as the tune, "Turkey in the Straw?" Little happinesses! We need more and more of these. And if you haven't seen Victor Borge, are YOU in for a treat. And to think that this kind of entertainment was so very popular not so long ago. We have nothing even close to that now. BUT thanks to recordings and technology, we can join in the fun again, even now. It literally does the heart good to see good-heartedness.
What fun! I picked up a whole lot of songs & lyrics when I was growing up in the Chicago suburbs, not on a farm--from the radio, from movies, from relatives singing around my grandparents’ piano, & from song collection books from the library, & even a couple from guys who grew up on Southern farms. Oddly enough, I never mastered a full version of “Turkey in the Straw”, just one verse which began “Oh, I went down to Sandy Hook the other afternoon....” Always have to make up filler for part B. However, I do know all of “Do your ears hang low”.
SO MUCH FUN! Thanks for sharing these, which do run the gamut. Speaking of communities which used to dance…….my father-in-law had a small band with his family in the sandhills of Nebraska. He would ride horseback to play, and to dance, at country dances. Then he would ride back to the ranch, in time to get started n the next day’s work. More or less.
My mother-in-law outlived him by fifteen years, and remarked “I had a good life with Charlie, and I have a good life without Charlie. You just have to reinvent your life.” She wasn’t given to self-pity, and had no patience with maudlin moods. But, in her final summer, she seemed to permit herself some tenderness toward her lost love, and would say, with a faraway look in her eyes, what a fine dancer he was.
Check out these pictures, and especially the captions, about the little school in Bynum, Montana.
Wow, that's the west, all right!! I got to enjoy second-hand real rural living (and I grew up in a small town) when we visited my aunt and uncle's old-style dairy farm in upstate NY back many years ago. It was making hay and then later for us kids, jumping from the hay mow to the hay wagon over and over and over and over. The farms were way spread out, but there was a real community there. I'm glad to see these photos of folks living real lives!! Your MIL reminds me of my own grandmother, mother of 13 (my own mother was the 9th child and youngest of the girls, with four younger brothers). My granny was no nonsense, either. She was 4' 10" tall and at her marriage her doctor warned her against bearing any children, because she had a rheumatic heart. He said it would kill her. He was right, I guess. She died at age 79, pretty good for a little lady born in the year 1900 when life expectancy was low. She was, as we used to say, "little but mighty." And all of her daughters, including my mother, were forces to be reconned with! I'll bet your FIL was fun, and think of him taking off on horseback to play at dances! I'll be he did a lot of "Turkey in the Straw," too.
In my experience, the force of the female is in inverse proportion to her size! Tiny women of character must gladden the heart of their Maker; he made so many of them.❤️ Thank you for telling about her; and God be praised for giving her such a heart for life.
I wish I had known my great-grandmother Maude L. When her youngest child was 10, Maude lost the power to walk, and lived thereafter in bed, or in a chair set on a wheeled platform. Wilma left school soon after to be her mother’s helper. When Wilma married at 18, my great-grandparents sold their farm and went to live with one of their sons, my grandfather. I have a picture of Maud in her bed there, in a room off the kitchen, with her head on the pillow and her dark eyes shining with joy. Next to her bed is a chair, where sits my great-grandfather William. I am told he used to sit there and sing hymns to her: the sweet old Protestant hymns that are food and balm to the soul. There is another picture, of the two when they were young, with my grandfather a tot on his mother’s knee. The smiles are nice in that picture; they were a handsome couple. But oh, the smiles in that later view……Our priest mentioned that when he performs weddings, he sees lots of young shining faces, alight with love. And he says that the faces he sees in hospital rooms, where a wife spoon-feeds a husband who can no longer feed himself, show the love even stronger.
And once when FIL came back from a sandhills dance, the other men were already in the field working. He asked if someone would go to the house and get him an egg sandwich, and he fell to work alongside.
Please tell your husband that his writing does me a lot of good. He tells the Truth, and he tells it well.
Thank you so much for sharing more of the story! What a treasure those photographs are. I have one photo of my father's paternal grandparents, with all their seven children lined up; and one photo of my mother maternal grandfather with one of her cousins. And that is all. The photos you describe are priceless. And the story of your great-grandfather singing hymns to your great-grandmother. Life was SO DIFFERENT then, and Tony and I just don't buy the story that folks who had less materially than we have also had more misery. They had more order, and stability in just about every conceivable way than moderns have. They took more delight is what they did have, and were immensely richer in those things which money cannot buy.
I'll pass along your regards to my husband, too. He needs the encouraging words!
This is Liberace at his finest. I believe the middle violinist with the mustache is his brother, George. Great job, Debra, in resurrecting these three videos.
Ed, we loved this Liberace so much that we must have watched it at least half a dozen times yesterday! He WAS at his very best here, start to finish. When I heard that little echo of "The Volga Boat Song" I had tears running down my face! Priceless! We're adding this to the Thanksgiving family tradition at the Esolen house from now on. I don't know how I missed it finding it sooner.
Ann, I always read my Sometimes a Song to Tony when I finish it. This time, he was so pleased by the time I played him the Burl Ives, that he said, "that's it!" Perfect. Then I showed him the corn-pone version, and we were just floored with the sheer madcap fun of it. But by the time I got to show him the Liberace, he was floored! We enjoyed it so much that we ran it about half a dozen times last night. We do need to fill our lives with this sort of thing. They used to say that laughter is the best medicine, and that is still true. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you, Debra, this song is lots of fun:) I agree with you, the Liberace version is the best. In the last frame of the video, Liberace is at the piano in his tux as are the violinists. Everything looks so refined and cultured, then you see the ax right next to the unsuspecting bird. It struck me as incongruous. But then again, lots of things, in this life of ours, are!
Oh goodness, the axe. There was a dark humor in the piece, of course, but everything about the performance was perfectly planned and -- pardon the pun -- executed. I'm pretty confident that that particular turkey was "paroled." This song made me realize what a real musical genius Liberace was. I think that it was possible to miss that because of his skill as a showman. But there was no empty show going on there. It was elegant (funny in itself, given that he was about to serenade, as he said, a turkey contemplating his impending doom). The incongruities were planned, musically, as well. The thing about those days is that ordinary folks found this kind of thing entertaining, and took it for granted. NOW we see what hard work, talent, artistry, and general good nature went into such a single number on a single show. We just don't have the good heartedness now, as a culture, to take pleasure in such a performance. Too bad for us, isn't it?
"...the performance was perfectly planned and -- pardon the pun -- executed." I love the pun! Very humorous:) Everything you wrote above is right on. Most people can readily realize the hard work, talent and artistry that went into this number. It is the "general good nature" which you rightly point out that is easy to overlook. And as you said, "We just don't have the good heartedness now, as a culture, to take pleasure in such a performance." It really is too bad for us all. But thankfully, you and your husband conceived Word & Song! There is good heartedness in each post, and you bring us wonderful gems in prose, poetry, and song. You may not be able to cure the culture, but your subscribers do take pleasure in the delightful performances you share. Thank you!
Barbara, you are really kind. We are so glad to have attracted the good-hearted sort of folks who actually enjoy what we are doing here at Word & Song. And these days that's something to be thankful for!
I remembered the song of my great-grandfather: “It is Well With My Soul.”
My brother explains that the people from that bloodline were hobbits. They knew how to enjoy things. No, there was no wealth, but there was goodness.
I just finished reading “Sex and the Unreal City.” As we say out west, Boy howdy. And! Though I am a child of those good hymn-singing hobbit bloodlines, the current of the times took me downstream for a time, though I surely did know better. After college, working at a job in Yellowtail Park, I looked out the window where the local elk were going about the business of nature. Bulls did what bulls do (fight one another, challenge one another, pursue the females) while cows did what cows do (eat grass, and ignore the hubbub.). “Hmm,” thought my college-trained brain, “Males and females behave differently from each other. And no one has socialized them into these gender roles.”
Reality happens!
Glory to God.
What a delightful comment, thank you! And you know, I've never seen that -- but now that you mention it, I did just see it in the movie Cowboys, with John Wayne hiring a dozen local schoolboys to help him get his herd to town 400 miles away, because all the available men have got the gold bug and are not to be found. There's a scene between an old bull and a young one, and Wayne says to the boys that the same thing goes on again and again every year, and sometimes the old one wins, and sometimes the youngster wins. "The young one's got strength and speed," he says, "but the old one's got the sharp eye and experience." The loser has to retreat ...
It is a good thing that there are men and women. Each is and should be felt to be quite a mystery to the other -- sometimes a frustrating mystery, but still, why should we be alike? What's the fun in that? God bless you and yours!
How delightful. In the sixties my third graders and I used to take work breaks by singing the old folk tunes like "The Fox went out on a chilly night" The children loved it and so did I. Thanks for bringing back some sweet memories.
Ah for the days of folk song singing in school! Such a human and just plain fun thing to do with children!
As I was reading and watching and listening to the text and videos of this SAS episode, a distinct thought came into my head that I wanted to reply with. But before doing so, I did first read the (at this point, so far, anyway) fifteen comments and replies, and realized that they all seemed to have that particular distinct thing in common that I had wanted to comment on, except that I want to say it in a broader and more general manner.
And that broader aspect is about the "purpose" for Word & Song existing in general, but encapsulated well, I think, in this particular post for today. See, as I was reading your comments above, and especially in listening to the three variations on the song -- and even in those fifteen-so-far replies by readers and you -- I couldn't help thinking about what the "common theme" of all the different columns in this site might be. Yes, of course, as you've described before, Word & Song is intended to focus on, and hopefully bring back into our weary and withering society more common knowledge and appreciation of the Good, the True and the Beautiful. And how wonderful that goal is.
But I guess what struck me today was that somehow, just the idea of, and experience of, and expression of pure "JOY" (I can only emphasize it properly by typing it in all caps there) is what I think I "see" in essentially all the various types of articles and clips and such in Word & Song, whether of movies, hymns, poems, literary works, popular songs, word origins, or philosophical commentary.
And oddly enough (and I hope I can say this properly and meaningfully), that quality of joy EVEN applies to -- and perhaps ESPECIALLY applies to -- those entries that have, on their surface, a sense of melancholy, sadness, longing, disappointment, even some degree of horror or sorrow at times.
I realize that sounds almost contradictory, but I mean it sincerely. There is, after all, a way of approaching life and history and art and music and well, everything-don't-ya-know, with an attitude of what I can only describe as joy. And the loss of -- or at least a very strong indication that we are rapidly losing, if not already long there -- a "joyful" approach to life and art and all those things, is the "thing" of that "distinct thought" I mentioned above in my opening sentence.
For there is, even in, say, a war movie that Tony has commented on, or a looking-into-the-face-of-despair described by a poem like Ozymandias or "Crossing the Bar" where Tony writes "Yet he did not despair. He did not give up." For that is, I think, one of the great dangers of (as I described above) our weary and withering society, where even art and music seem at times to be bent on driving hatred and despair and ugliness into our very souls to somehow replace innate joy that God has given us.
And combating that seemingly-willing drive/dive into the abyss by our current cultural forces with a powerful sword of JOY (if you will) that can cut through the worldly morass if wielded confidently and with the skill and knowledge of the Esolens' daily/weekly effort in Word & Song, is, to me, THE unifying principal of the site. I am reminded of that passage in Acts when the high priest and council had Peter and the Apostles beaten and that then "they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name" AND (in a slightly different direction) the first line of the chorus from John Denver's song Matthew, "Yes, an' Joy was just a thing that he was raised on" that follows, even after the verse that ends, "He lost the farm and lost his family, lost the wheat and lost his home, but he found his family Bible, a faith as solid as a stone."
That is all. Thank you for Word & Song and the JOY it brings in all its manifestations. We need it these days.
Dear Stanley -- you describe Word and Song better than I could ever do. It's because when you're trying to bring that power into people's lives, you feel sometimes a bit sheepish, as if you had something really beautiful to show, but you know from the start that a lot of people will shrug at it or mock it, and it's not that you're afraid of the criticism, but it's as if it could hurt the beautiful thing itself, as if somebody threw mud or tar on it.
And after all, isn't one of the bonds of friendship a fellow-feeling for the same beautiful things? I think that C. S. Lewis put it in this way, as when you meet somebody like that, and you say, "You too? You see it too? How wonderful!" Imagine that a boy has some special place in the woods, that he finds fascinating or haunting or beautiful, he can hardly say why, and he is shy of taking anybody there, not because his feelings would be hurt, but because the person might not see, might not understand, and that would be a disappointment. He'd be disillusioned, except that it's not an illusion he'd be robbed of, but the truth of the place.
Where can we find beauty now, or delight, or just good hearty cheer? Here at Word and Song -- here at least. And as long as we're here, so will those invitations keep coming.
Wow, Stanley, I'm overwhelmed. Thank you for that encouraging note and for taking the time to write it out. One thing we determined on when we began Word & Song was really to put before anyone we could get to join in with our effort things UNLIKE the daily barrage of misery that modern life dishes up. We perhaps can't make those things go away, but, we thought, we can send out alternatives which focus on good things, large or small.
I recall talking with the daughter of my parents' best friends, a couple who were about 15 years their senior. The daughter is about 15 years MY senior, and we were reminiscing about our parents and what life was like growing up in that general era, and she said to me, "our parents knew how to HAVE FUN." And she was so right. They all grew up in extreme poverty, but they knew how to have fun, how to create fun, and how to take joy where it was to be found. In our times, I think it's gotten to the point for many of us that we must be purposeful about seeking good things to contemplate. If we don't we might indeed despair.
This was one of my grandfather Patrick's favorites. :)
Great song! And really it was known by everyone when I was a kid. I learned it "along the way," and I recall also doing a little bit of square dancing in school to the tune. And that was when dancing at public gatherings was largely on the out, having been replaced by haphazard flailing. I ADORE the Liberace "Turkey in the Straw" (with variations!), and never saw it before yesterday, myself. Tony and I agreed that it reminded us in its zaniness of some of Victor Borge's musical humor. Borge was skilled pianist, too, but he made his reputation as a humorist. Liberace was a musical genius, clearly, who used showmanship to take great music to people of all backgrounds. This piece (which I am sure he composed himself) is an example of how -- with no words at all -- music can create the humor, with the entire setup done in his inimitable showmanlike style.
I am writing down some of my family memories, and wrote this passage not too long ago:
"My grandparents would frequently drive to San Bernardino to see us, and one evening, my father told me and my sister, 'Girls, why don’t you play Turkey in the Straw for your grandfather.'
So my sister and I took Grandfather by the hand. 'Come on, Grandfather,' I remember saying as we directed him to our bedroom. We put on the record, and I watched him smile as 'Turkey in the Straw' thrummed and crackled happily on the record player."
I wish I could find that version of the song that we played for him. As I recall, there was a lot of whistling in it.
Thank you for sharing that the song was known by everyone. I love knowing that my grandfather loved the song as much as he did. I will hold onto those details until I see him again. And I will look up Borge. I am CONTINUOUSLY learning from you and Dr. Esolen.
Oh Dominique, you just made my day. What a lovely memory of your father and your grandfather, and doesn't it just demonstrate that cultural memory of something as light and just good-hearted as the tune, "Turkey in the Straw?" Little happinesses! We need more and more of these. And if you haven't seen Victor Borge, are YOU in for a treat. And to think that this kind of entertainment was so very popular not so long ago. We have nothing even close to that now. BUT thanks to recordings and technology, we can join in the fun again, even now. It literally does the heart good to see good-heartedness.
Little happinesses! Yes! That's what they are!
What fun! I picked up a whole lot of songs & lyrics when I was growing up in the Chicago suburbs, not on a farm--from the radio, from movies, from relatives singing around my grandparents’ piano, & from song collection books from the library, & even a couple from guys who grew up on Southern farms. Oddly enough, I never mastered a full version of “Turkey in the Straw”, just one verse which began “Oh, I went down to Sandy Hook the other afternoon....” Always have to make up filler for part B. However, I do know all of “Do your ears hang low”.
"Can you tie 'em in a knot? Can you tie 'em in a bow?" Hahaaaaa! did you or did you not love the Liberace?
I enjoyed his virtuosic rendition, and it brought me back to when we used to watch him every week.
SO MUCH FUN! Thanks for sharing these, which do run the gamut. Speaking of communities which used to dance…….my father-in-law had a small band with his family in the sandhills of Nebraska. He would ride horseback to play, and to dance, at country dances. Then he would ride back to the ranch, in time to get started n the next day’s work. More or less.
My mother-in-law outlived him by fifteen years, and remarked “I had a good life with Charlie, and I have a good life without Charlie. You just have to reinvent your life.” She wasn’t given to self-pity, and had no patience with maudlin moods. But, in her final summer, she seemed to permit herself some tenderness toward her lost love, and would say, with a faraway look in her eyes, what a fine dancer he was.
Check out these pictures, and especially the captions, about the little school in Bynum, Montana.
https://thomasleetruewest.com/2015/05/12/montana-photographs-bynum-dancing/
Wow, that's the west, all right!! I got to enjoy second-hand real rural living (and I grew up in a small town) when we visited my aunt and uncle's old-style dairy farm in upstate NY back many years ago. It was making hay and then later for us kids, jumping from the hay mow to the hay wagon over and over and over and over. The farms were way spread out, but there was a real community there. I'm glad to see these photos of folks living real lives!! Your MIL reminds me of my own grandmother, mother of 13 (my own mother was the 9th child and youngest of the girls, with four younger brothers). My granny was no nonsense, either. She was 4' 10" tall and at her marriage her doctor warned her against bearing any children, because she had a rheumatic heart. He said it would kill her. He was right, I guess. She died at age 79, pretty good for a little lady born in the year 1900 when life expectancy was low. She was, as we used to say, "little but mighty." And all of her daughters, including my mother, were forces to be reconned with! I'll bet your FIL was fun, and think of him taking off on horseback to play at dances! I'll be he did a lot of "Turkey in the Straw," too.
In my experience, the force of the female is in inverse proportion to her size! Tiny women of character must gladden the heart of their Maker; he made so many of them.❤️ Thank you for telling about her; and God be praised for giving her such a heart for life.
I wish I had known my great-grandmother Maude L. When her youngest child was 10, Maude lost the power to walk, and lived thereafter in bed, or in a chair set on a wheeled platform. Wilma left school soon after to be her mother’s helper. When Wilma married at 18, my great-grandparents sold their farm and went to live with one of their sons, my grandfather. I have a picture of Maud in her bed there, in a room off the kitchen, with her head on the pillow and her dark eyes shining with joy. Next to her bed is a chair, where sits my great-grandfather William. I am told he used to sit there and sing hymns to her: the sweet old Protestant hymns that are food and balm to the soul. There is another picture, of the two when they were young, with my grandfather a tot on his mother’s knee. The smiles are nice in that picture; they were a handsome couple. But oh, the smiles in that later view……Our priest mentioned that when he performs weddings, he sees lots of young shining faces, alight with love. And he says that the faces he sees in hospital rooms, where a wife spoon-feeds a husband who can no longer feed himself, show the love even stronger.
And once when FIL came back from a sandhills dance, the other men were already in the field working. He asked if someone would go to the house and get him an egg sandwich, and he fell to work alongside.
Please tell your husband that his writing does me a lot of good. He tells the Truth, and he tells it well.
Amazing grace.
Thank you so much for sharing more of the story! What a treasure those photographs are. I have one photo of my father's paternal grandparents, with all their seven children lined up; and one photo of my mother maternal grandfather with one of her cousins. And that is all. The photos you describe are priceless. And the story of your great-grandfather singing hymns to your great-grandmother. Life was SO DIFFERENT then, and Tony and I just don't buy the story that folks who had less materially than we have also had more misery. They had more order, and stability in just about every conceivable way than moderns have. They took more delight is what they did have, and were immensely richer in those things which money cannot buy.
I'll pass along your regards to my husband, too. He needs the encouraging words!
This is Liberace at his finest. I believe the middle violinist with the mustache is his brother, George. Great job, Debra, in resurrecting these three videos.
Ed, we loved this Liberace so much that we must have watched it at least half a dozen times yesterday! He WAS at his very best here, start to finish. When I heard that little echo of "The Volga Boat Song" I had tears running down my face! Priceless! We're adding this to the Thanksgiving family tradition at the Esolen house from now on. I don't know how I missed it finding it sooner.
Wonderfully entertaining. If more people listened to Burl Ives and other folk singers they would laugh and be happy. Made my morning. Thank you.
Ann, I always read my Sometimes a Song to Tony when I finish it. This time, he was so pleased by the time I played him the Burl Ives, that he said, "that's it!" Perfect. Then I showed him the corn-pone version, and we were just floored with the sheer madcap fun of it. But by the time I got to show him the Liberace, he was floored! We enjoyed it so much that we ran it about half a dozen times last night. We do need to fill our lives with this sort of thing. They used to say that laughter is the best medicine, and that is still true. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you, Debra, this song is lots of fun:) I agree with you, the Liberace version is the best. In the last frame of the video, Liberace is at the piano in his tux as are the violinists. Everything looks so refined and cultured, then you see the ax right next to the unsuspecting bird. It struck me as incongruous. But then again, lots of things, in this life of ours, are!
Oh goodness, the axe. There was a dark humor in the piece, of course, but everything about the performance was perfectly planned and -- pardon the pun -- executed. I'm pretty confident that that particular turkey was "paroled." This song made me realize what a real musical genius Liberace was. I think that it was possible to miss that because of his skill as a showman. But there was no empty show going on there. It was elegant (funny in itself, given that he was about to serenade, as he said, a turkey contemplating his impending doom). The incongruities were planned, musically, as well. The thing about those days is that ordinary folks found this kind of thing entertaining, and took it for granted. NOW we see what hard work, talent, artistry, and general good nature went into such a single number on a single show. We just don't have the good heartedness now, as a culture, to take pleasure in such a performance. Too bad for us, isn't it?
"...the performance was perfectly planned and -- pardon the pun -- executed." I love the pun! Very humorous:) Everything you wrote above is right on. Most people can readily realize the hard work, talent and artistry that went into this number. It is the "general good nature" which you rightly point out that is easy to overlook. And as you said, "We just don't have the good heartedness now, as a culture, to take pleasure in such a performance." It really is too bad for us all. But thankfully, you and your husband conceived Word & Song! There is good heartedness in each post, and you bring us wonderful gems in prose, poetry, and song. You may not be able to cure the culture, but your subscribers do take pleasure in the delightful performances you share. Thank you!
Barbara, you are really kind. We are so glad to have attracted the good-hearted sort of folks who actually enjoy what we are doing here at Word & Song. And these days that's something to be thankful for!