Sunday, June 24, 2018

Growing Up with Music and Dance

After exploring with you the books of my child- and adulthood, I’d like to take another trip down memory lane and explore music. It’s been part of my life since childhood because my mother sang as she did every household chore and as she sat, playing solitaire, in the the living-room easy chair we called “Mom’s chair.”

She had an old Ouija/Weejee board that she used for solitaire. She’d place it across her lap and deal out the cards. As she moved one row to another, she’d be singing a popular song from the 1920s, ‘30s, or ‘40s. Her voice was a rich, clear soprano, and she had an instinct for phrasing the lyrics. Mom would sometimes sing along with music on the radio, but most often, she sang solo as she went about her day.

Listening to her sing, I learned all the words and melodies to Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess.” I also memorized and sang songs by Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, and many others.


(There's a lot of music before you get to the words, but it's worth the wait!)


When I was little—a toddler—my dad sang to me each night. Our favorite song was “Dream Train.” The words, as I remember them, were “Dream train, please carry me back. Dream train, stay on the right track. . . . Stop when a sweet old lady holler’s ‘Welcome, my dream train!’” I felt so safe each night with the covers tucked around me and Dad singing. I could see the train and the track that was carrying me to dreamland.

In school, also, we learned songs like “I’m a Little Teapot.” The one I remember best is from first-grade. Ms. MacMillan taught us “A Little Ducky-Duddle.” The words go: “A little ducky-duddle was wadding in a puddle. Was wading in a puddle quite small. Said he, ‘It doesn’t matter, how much I splash and splutter. I’m only a ducky after all. I’m only a ducky after all.”

Ms. MacMillan taught us words, melody, and accompanying actions. I can still—with my voice taking on the sing-song lisp of a first-grader—act out this song. My doing so has delighted all the young children whom I have loved as an adult. (I think it has also embarrassed the adults who were those children’s parents!)



Both my brother and I learned to sing by listening to Mom and Dad harmonize. They would sometimes sing songs like “Daisy! Daisy,” “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home,” or “Casey Would Waltz with a Strawberry Blond” from the early part of the 20th century.  Sometimes they’d dance as they sang and my brother—who was three years young than I—would prance around the living room. Then the two of us would put on our own show, imitating the dance moves of our mom and dad.

As the years passed, I learned songs from Hollywood musicals like “The Bells of Saint Mary’s” and “Going My Way.” The radio and the movie theater brought us many memorable songs. Later, on TV’s “Ed Sullivan Show,” we saw the artists who had introduced a song—Elvis singing “Hound Dog,” Nat King Cole singing “When I Fall in Love,” Peggy Lee singing “It’s a Good Day.” At the movies, we saw the Broadway musicals that became Hollywood hits: “South Pacific,” “Carousel,” “Oklahoma,” “Brigadoon,” and “My Fair Lady.”

Music made my feet waltz and polka, fox-trot and tango. In the 7th grade, Sister Mary McAuley taught us how to do those dances; at the high school mixers our class danced up a storm.

So for the 22 years before I entered the convent, I sang and danced. Singing became a way of coping with my father’s alcoholism. Dancing became a way to whisk myself into another world—a dreamland.

30 comments:

  1. Such a sweet memory of song in your early years. I never had such luxury in my family, nobody could carry a tune! :-)

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    1. Dear DJan, I'm not sure if my brother or I could carry a tune, but we all just loved to sing! Peace.

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  2. Did they sing and dance in the Convent? I feel like that's a silly question! Of course, not? Maybe? Do they sing worship music?

    "She had an old Ouija/Weejee board that she used for solitaire. She’d place it across her lap and deal out the cards"

    Those things are terrifying. They are not really a toy. Had a bad experience as a foolish teen... did your mom ever use it?

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    1. Dear Sandi, in the convent we sand many Latin hymns at Mass. Mostly of them were Gregorian and quite lovely. And I used to sing as I sorted the laundry outside the noisy laundry house. I'm not sure if the novice mistress knew that.

      As to the Ouija board: my mom never used one and didn't believe in them. It was grandmother--my dad's mom--who kept buying the latest board and then getting rid o the old ones. So Mom just turned it over to the back side and played solitaire on it. Peace.

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  3. Precious memories indeed.
    Music didn't feature heavily in our lives - and still doesn't in mine.
    I wonder whether I would have coped better with my mother's alcoholism (see my post before last) if it had.
    Hugs.

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    1. Dear Sue, I went and read that posting on your mom's alcoholism. Your honesty is a thing of beauty. Thank you.

      I do think that singing truly helped me cope with Dad's drinking. When he drink whiskey he could become quite violent and so I saw scenes that children shouldn't see But those songs helped me go to another place where all was happy. They are what began my escaping life into an idealistic dream world. That continued into the convent and led to a near breakdown. (You'll see all this when you get time to read the memoir.)

      So I'm not sure whether the singing was--in the long run--good or not. Peace.

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    2. Dee: At the time you needed a safe place, a happy place. It sounds as if the singing was certainly helpful then, if not later. I really am looking forward to your memoir, and exploring further. Thank you.

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    3. Dear Sue, yes, I truly became Debbie Reynolds or Ingrid Bergman listening to Bing Crosby. It was a land of wonder for me that singing provided. Peace.

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  4. I'm always amazed that people can remember their grade school teacher's names. I can't even remember my college instructor's.

    My mom was into solitaire BIG TIME. I remember thinking what a huge waste of time it was. But now that I'm older I play a lot of solitaire as a way of calming my mine. (Sorry, mom, for the bad thought!)

    Love your musical remembrances. My mom loved to sing but wasn't good at it like your mom. She had copied the lyrics of all the popular songs off the radio and she have my brother and I sing from her notebook as we did the dishes. It was her way of keeping us from fighting. Thanks for the walk down Memory Lane.

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    1. Dear Jean, my brother and I have always been blessed with good memories and I've done well with that up until the pass few years. Now I still have the memory for the past, but I can't remember what I did last week! It's the short term memory that concerns me now.

      Sound like your mom developed a good technique! Peace.

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  5. I'm a Little Teapot featured in my childhood as well. I really enjoyed being able to act out the teapot bit with my body. My mother used to sing Bicycle Built for Two a lot to me when I was little. -not a children's song, per se, but I did so enjoy it.

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    1. Dear Bea, Mom sang "Bicycle Built for Two" also, as did I once I learned it. Did you learn the songs your mom sang to you? For me, they became my repertoire! Peace.

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    2. I don't remember all the words to Bicycle Built for Two anymore, sadly.

      Children's rhymes have stayed with me a bit better.

      Songs learned in chorus class became my 'standards'. -every song from the Sergeant Pepper album, to be exact!

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    3. Dear Bea, you know, I"m sure that you can go to YouTube and/or Goggle and find the words for "Bicycle Built for Two." Al I can remember right now is the ending, "but you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two!"

      When i left the convent back in 1966, the Beatles were really popular and I like many of their songs. I remember the album cover for the Sergeant Pepper Album! Peace.

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  6. Dear Dee, I can relate to this post very much. Both my parents loved to sing and you brought back many memories that I had not thought of in years. After losing my mom, the only way we could bring my father out of his dementia was to sing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. He would always join in and with his beautiful tenor voice, he would again be the the dad we knew.

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    1. Dear Arleen, what a wonderful memory to have--of your dad sining "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." This is so touching that the song--for a few moments--brought him back to you as he once had been. Thank you for sharing this. Peace.

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  7. So glad music brought you such comfort and pleasure. Isn't it amazing how songs we haven't heard for 50 years or so, we know all the words to. Now if they had just set algebra to music:))

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    1. Dear Patti, yes, I can remember "A Little Ducky Duddle," learned when I was 6 and I don't know the words of any contemporary song--nor do I remember what I talked about with my great niece last Friday at lunch! Peace.

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  8. I love the image of your mom playing solitaire on the Ouija board and singing! My parents had popular records of their day, 78s and 33 1/3s, that they danced to in the living room. My uncle Bill was the enthusiastic singer in the family and I learned all the words to many songs, old and new, from him. He specialized in humorous ones and I love those memories of car rides next to him, my knees straddling the shifter, him booming out a crazy song.

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    1. Dear Cynthia, we didn't have a record player or records, but the radio served to introduce new songs to us. Then television came along and we heard all the singers of the day crooning and be-bopping their songs.

      What a wonderful memory you have of your uncle Bill! My aunt Dorothy was like that--a vibrant human being who did everything in the superlative! How fortunate we were to have them. Peace.

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  9. That is so special.. There's nothing better than music to sooth the soul... I grew up in a very musical family... My older brother played the piano and trumpet. The middle brother played the piano and accordian. THEN I came along and played the piano, organ, and clarinet... Mom and Dad always had some kind of music going in our home.. I went to college knowing that I would major in music... However, due to the teachers/professors I had, I ended up majoring in VOICE and Education... I taught high school --right out of college --and some of my friends now are my students from those days in the mid-60's... It's hard to believe now that they are only about 6 years younger than I am!!!! ha

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Dear Betsy, I had no idea that you had this extensive background in music and musical instruments. Your family must have had their own "hootenanny" nights and also concerts. How wonderful! Did you teach VOICE in high school as well as the glee club and other music classes? I can't get over your background and I wonder if George gets to listen to you sing a lot! How wonderful that would be, I so enjoyed my mom's singing as she did everything in the house and as she drove the car. Thanks for sharing. Peace.

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  10. My mom had tons of sheet music from the forties and fifties and I loved playing it all on our piano. Of course that was after I finished my lessons of classical music. Unfortunately I disappointed here with my inagility to move on to Carnegie Hall....

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    1. Dear Troutbirder, do you still have a piano, and if so, do you still play it? The music of the '40s and '50s is surely part of my memory. I danced to it and dreamed to it also! Peace.

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  11. Dream Train is a great song. Thanks for sharing it. I love music and movies from that time period. My friends use to tease me when I was in high school because while they were listening to pop and rock music, I was listening to Glen Miller.

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    1. Dear Angela, thanks for stopping by. I'm glad to know that someone else appreciates "Dream Train." Today, I'm like you were in high school--I'm still singing the songs of the mid-twentieth century. I don't know any of today's hits! Peace.

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  12. What a brilliant post Dee. I went to a convent school, and our Sisters of Mercy certainly never taught us how to dance. Indeed had we ever caught any of the Nuns singing that would have softened my memories of them!
    I was reflecting how sad it is that music has largely gone to ground with the increased use of headphones.
    My two Grandmothers one used to play the piano and we used to gather around and sing, one of the favourites was 'bicycle made for two', my other Grandmother hummed everywhere! Now what ever happened to humming and indeed whistling?!
    I'm going to be humming all day now - hope your day is a happy one!
    Wren x

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    1. Dear Wren, Sister Mary McCauley had taught us for three years (5th, 6th, and 7th grade) so she knew what we knew and just taught us what we didn't know. So we had time on our hands. She filled that time by teaching us square dancing and then ball-room dancing. She was an exceptional human being.

      I love the pictures you paint of your two grandmothers. And it's so true that we don't hear humming or whistling anymore. I hadn't thought of that until you mentioned it. I think I'll hum along with you! Peace.

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  13. Dee: Now I see why you used dancing and singing as "therapy" in your first year at the convent. I grew up in a house with a piano and I took lessons. I practiced religiously every day after school. That small part of my day was so rewarding.

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    1. Dear Judy, I'm in awe that you connected this posting with the convent memoir. But yes, it's so true that in the convent the dancing and singing were therapy for me.

      I'm thinking that your piano practice took you to the deep center of yourself where you were most at peace and most content with being simply "Judy." Peace.

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