Oh, Johnny, oh Johnny, how you can love.

One December, long long ago. I was sad. I'd been sad for a very long time. I remember riding in a car. Outside, the world was covered in snow. The sun was setting and Christmas Lights were starting to glow. The air was filled with the smells of warm cozy fires in warm cozy fireplaces. Before I could stop myself, I sang, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," and all the passengers in the car exhaled. You see I didn't realize how my sadness had caused my babies to in-effect hold their breath.

To a child, a mother's voice is the most beautiful thing in the world, not because the notes are on pitch -- or the vibrato is just so -- but because it means mother is happy. I've known this for a long time now, and I can even remember thinking something similar as a child. (O.k. it was more like, "I don't know why mom complains about her voice, I like it.")

The nice thing about a blog is that it helps you verbalize those things that maybe you don't remember or that you didn't "put together" right away.

Tuesday night, I came home from work wondering what I was going to do for the rest of the evening. Naji announced that his third grade swap meet was the next day and he needed us (meaning me) to bead him some more bracelets. How exciting, I had something to do. I plugged my external hard drive into my TV and selected some music to listen to while I worked. I fell upon a folder of 150 songs by the Andrew Sisters and figured that would keep me busy for a while.  Many of the songs were tunes I recognized and many were new to me. I didn't get my aha moment, however, until I heard, "Oh, Johnny, Oh." I'd heard that song before, but where?

For those of you who haven't heard the song, the refrain begins, "Oh, Johnny, oh Johnny, how you can love." And that was the part I was very familiar with. Suddenly I remembered my father singing it to my baby brother, Jon, when he was tiny.





You see, I know that the reason my Ol' Lady Band is playing "Jambalaya" is cause my dad liked it. And my whole family knows my dad liked "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You". He used to sing it to my mother. But what I didn't realize is that my Dad sang all the time. You family members that are reading this, remember "Cool Water" -- that was one of his go-to songs as well. Those of you who are not family members, my dad couldn't sing. He acknowledged that he couldn't carry a tune ("in a bucket" was the phrase back then).

But aren't I so very glad that he did sing. I find myself appreciating the very songs that I thought were bleck back then ("Hey Good Looking -- What's You Got Cooking" -- was so much better than asking what's for dinner.)


This Sunday as I was driving home from church, my eldest announced, "We got to sing 'I am Like a Star' in Primary today!" My eldest is 24 and teaches the 8 year olds. "I LOVE that song," she said. I should hope she does. I used to sing her to sleep with it when she was very tiny. When I told her that, we had a good laugh. There is no possible way she could remember that, but somewhere in her hidden memories, it's there.

My dad once told me kids don't get interesting until they're about 6. Isn't it nice that parents are interesting from the get go :)