Getting older all the time (Which, I guess, is probably a good thing).

One of the reasons I started this blog was to trace (and tell about) some of the experiences that happen on the way to Coothood.  One thing that is irritating right now is the persistence of Song tunes and lyric (in little bits)

When I was younger I used to have the advantage of singing a lot.  I sang solos in church (I even made a little money singing in some other churches), I have had singing/speaking roles in a few dozen musical plays operetta and operas as well as choirs church choirs, Community choirs, college choirs, you name it.  I even sang with a band for a little while, and have been the chorister and/or choir director for several different Mormon congregations.

In all of this, I have learned (and partially forgotten) a myriad of tunes and lyrics.  My complaint now, is that they run through my head constantly.  Today I have been humming and thinking a hymn (I believe, but am not sure that its title is THE HOLY CITY.)  

The phrases that have been running through my mind “Jerusalem Jerusalem, lift up your voice and sing.  Hosanna to the Highest, Hosanna to your king”  ( and a lot more, but I won’t bore you with printed lyrics)  then suddenly I was singing (under my breath) “The itsy bitsy spider ran up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out. Up came the sun and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider, ran up the spout again.”

Last night while I was trying to go to sleep I couldn’t get rid of “You dig sixteen tons, and what do you get? A little bit older and deeper in debt.”  I even remember most of the lyrics to that one.  Spirituals “ DEEP RIVER, JOSHUA FIT THE BATTLE OF JERICO, EZEKIAL SAW THE WHEEL.

The most frustrating thin is that I usually can remember about half or less of every thing.  It is often a lot less classical.   A quartet, that I was in, in high school used to go round to  men’s organizations and sing.  We usually concluded  with about twenty  limericks with less than clean lyrics tied together with a connecting chorus “That was a very fine song, sing us another one, voom tiddly voom tiddley, voom tiddly voom.”  Unfortunately I can remember most of them word for word,

Other tunes that plague my are the ones we sang on busses as we traveled to “football games” , choir concerts, etch.  I remember all the words of TWENTY ONE BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL.

For a while, when I would sing a phrase or two of a song that I didn’t’ remember I would Google the phrase and usually come up with a complete lyric, and sometimes a UTUBE performance  but that took up too much time.

I wonder how many old coots remember songs like that (One of my teachers used to call them “Ear wigs).  If not , they probably come up with other half remembers experiences from their past.

What is most frustrating is that I remember so many thing (as least in patches) and frequently can’t remember the name of friend (which is most irritating when you are talking to the friend.