Dusty and Dated Songs of My Youth

Nothing dates a person like her repertoire of songs. But, I fear my repertoire is dusty, dated, and part of a fading past. My post from a year ago, In the Gloaming was about eventide or early night and I mentioned a song by that name. True, it is a very old song and true, the word “gloaming” is Scottish and is well over 300 years old, but surely there is someone who still remembers that song. Well, yes, there are one or two people and I thank you for admitting it. Then, I started thinking: I must be in a very small percentage of people who grew up with such sentimental and, actually, really pretty songs. But then, in my early school days, we began the day with singing, the Flag Salute, and the Lord’s Prayer. As I remember, in the school I attended for several years, Valley Center, we had a red song book, a yellow song book, a student who played the piano, and a teacher who liked to sing. 

My parents enjoyed music too. Dad would sing old hymns or cowboy songs and Mom would sing songs she learned as a girl and, of course, I learned those. Little Joe, the Wrangler (what a sad song), Home on the Range, Loch Lomond, Flow Gently, Sweet Afton, and other pretty melodies. But, I am beginning to suspect that those days, being in the long ago past, are going to stay there. Maybe that’s where they belong, but if it is, I do believe today’s kids are missing out on some nice music.

Now, I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s and I’ll admit to liking a whole lot of the songs that were popular then. They were love songs or funny or just silly, but they had a beat and I could understand the words. Sometimes I still listen to them on CDs or on special stations that play that kind of music. However, I’ve yet to hear a station play In the Gloaming.

I’m also beginning to suspect that books I loved are pretty much a part of history but not so much a part of today’s children’s reading. Understood Betsy, The Little House Books, Black Beauty, Thunderhead, Green Grass of Wyoming, Nancy Drew, Thornton W. Burgess books, on and on. These were my friends as I grew up and I kind of hope a few children still find them interesting.

I admit I don’t understand and I don’t much like a lot of the modern music I hear. Maybe if I understood it, I’d like it better. I can’t tell the difference between the various modern genres, but that’s all right. There are many things about today’s culture I don’t understand; popular music is one of them.

I don’t know if the culture decides the songs or the songs decide the culture. I do know that what young people listen to, read, and watch has a great deal to do with their values and their core beliefs.

By this time, I’m sure I sound like a mean, old grouchy, dusty relic. While it’s true my youth, like the old songs, is long past, I can still remember. Now and then, I go to the piano, and play, When You and I Were Young, Maggie. Now, that’s a song I can relate to.