Saturday, June 15, 2013

Musical Memories


With this being Father’s Day weekend, I’m reminiscing about my Dad today.   One thing that amazes me is how seemingly inconsequential things that he said during my time with him have stuck in my brain, although at the time I didn’t understand where they came from - I just figured it was Dad being Dad. Since he passed though, I occasionally will hear them in their original context and finally piece together the bits and have a wonderful “aha moment.”

My Dad 

An example of this is whenever we would see a goldenrod flowering, typically in mid-July when the early goldenrods would flower, he would hum “summer’s almost gone, winter’s coming on.”  To this day, I can’t see a goldenrod without hearing him sing that line in my head.   Until recently I never knew that he was actually quoting a line from the Kingston Trio’s song “Gotta Travel On.”  It is interesting to me to see how the meaning was changed in Dad’s mind, being more of a lament about the passing of summer and the coming of winter instead of a young man’s need to travel.

I enjoy such moments as I realize Dad was an audio sponge (just like I am) and its really cool for me to be transported back to the 1940's, 50’s or 60’s through a random memory of a jingle he'd sing as an older man.

In memory of dear ol’ Dad, here’s a video of Gotta Travel On, although I’ll take a little creative license and link y’all to a Bob Dylan cover of it which I enjoy more.

Happy Father's Day all! 

5 comments:

  1. Nice memory. It's one of those little idiosyncrasies that are such a jewel to pass on.

    Laura Hedgecock
    http://www.TreasureChestofMemories.com
    http://www.Twitter.com/LaruaLHedgecock

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  2. I wondered if you came across any slave grave sites in the Lancaster MA cemetery? I know this is a long shot but I am on the trail of Hosea who was sold to a Jonathan Butterick of said town in 1798.

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    1. Hi there! I did not to my knowledge, although was not looking for them.

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