Eternal questions of life..........

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After being whacked on the head by Helen over at Unk’s, I suddenly recalled something from my dimly-lit and murky past. When I was a kid of just 4 or 5, my next-door neighbors had an old crank phonograph stored out in their wash house. It was a large affair with a tall cabinet and the big funnel speaker. In the lower cabinet there were dozens on old, thick, 78 rpm records. Of course, we kids tore the who thing up in a matter of years, but first we listened to the old music.

One tune I remember was an old-time crooner singing about the eternal struggle of love. I only remember a couple of lines, but now I realize they have been rattling loose in my subconscious my whole life. The reason that I am who and what I am (?) is most certainly connected to the unanswered questions that were imprinted onto my delicate juvenile cranial sponge.

Anyway, here is what I remember, and if anyone can answer these questions, please, it may not be too late for me to turn my life around and become an acceptable member of society.

“OH....................

Who’s keeping time with the time-keeper’s daughter, while the time-keeper’s busy keeping time?

Oh me, oh my, it surely isn’t I.

Who’s undertaking the undertakers sweety, while the undertaker’s busy under taking?

Oh me, oh my, it surely isn’t I.

Who’s over seeing the overseer’s daughter while the overseer’s busy over seeing?

Oh me, oh my, it surely isn't I.”

Unfortunately, (or fortunately), that’s all I can coax out of the dust covered dumpster of what used to be a perfectly usable brain. If you’ve ever heard this song; if it was indeed, your crazy uncle who recorded it, please let me know quickly. Human existence as we know it may hang in the balance.

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 18, 2002

Answers

To the new answers page, Jeeves. And be careful on the corners, I'd hate to spill my champaign on my lovely imaginary companion.

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 18, 2002.

Lon, sorry I can't help with your memory or your song. However, I remember one that my mom used to play once in a while that went "My mommy told me not to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears, beans in my ears..." Naturally, I therefore had to try putting beans in my ears. Fortunately they fell out, not in!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@t.n), September 18, 2002.

Champion champgne.....

He said champing at the champhered chamber.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (racookpe@earthlink.net), September 18, 2002.


I did not whack you on the head! I merely tweaked your nose!

-- helen (never@heard.that.song.because.I.am.a.nice.girl), September 18, 2002.

Yeah, and the doctors said that if I find my nose they can probably reattach it somewhat between my crossed eyes.

Anyway, you've started an absolute flood of musical memories. Another record I remember was with an old portable phonograph my folks gqve to us kids. I could still hum the tune, but the name was "The Beer Barrel Polka", and the only words I remember are "roll out the barrel, roll out the barrel of fun..."

My dad was a German farm kid, but both he and Mom were tea-totalers. I can only imagine the day they bought that record. Wouldn't you like to go back and meet your parents when they were young? I have a photo of my now 90 year old mother, sitting poolside in a bathing suit with long dark hair falling over her shoulders. Her name is Dorothy, and her girlfriends called her Dot. She walked to her ob downtown in San Antonio as a telephone operator during the depression to support her family. Amazing.

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 18, 2002.



That one I can find:

The Beer Barrel Polka

(Brown-Tim-Vejvoda)

There's a garden, what a garden

Only happy faces bloom there

And there's never any room

For a worry or a gloom

There's music, and there's dancing

And a lot of sweet romancing

When they play the polka

They all get in the swing

Everytime you hear that Oom-pah-pah

Everbody feels so tra-la-la-la

They only want to come back for one thing

They crowd around and sing trolly-olly-ay

And you hear that rumble on the floor

It's a big (HA HA HA HA) surprise you're waiting for

Then all at once everybody, everybody, forms a ring

(Spoken: Come on everybody get up and form a ring. That's

the way, everybody get up and form a big ring. That's the way.

Then all at once you form a ring. Everybody get up and form a

ring. Here's a tenth of everybody....)

For miles around, you'll hear them sing

Roll out the barrel, We'll have a barrel of fun

Roll out the barrel, we've got the blues on the run

Zing Boom Terrara

Join in a glass of good cheer

Now it's time to roll the barrel

For the gang's all here (Spoken: Take it away boys!)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 19, 2002.


I HAD FORGOTTEN THE ZING BOOM TERRARA!!!

Thanks, Gayla. That's the one all right. (Now, c'mon, you really got this one in your collection, don't ya?)

The other goes back a little further. It was one of those really old quarter-inch thick records. I'm not even sure they were made from vinyl. We kids busted up a whole pile of them, and now, to think that those lovely lyrics may be lost forever.........(sniff).

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 19, 2002.


Sorry Lon, I don't 'do' polka. I did get a kick out of watching Steve Urkel 'get down with his bad self' on Family Matters, though. Does that count? :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 20, 2002.

"I" polka ....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (racookpe@earthlink.net), September 22, 2002.

Lon, the song "Who Takes Care of the Caretaker's Daughter" was a hit for Cliff Edwards (aka "Ukelele Ike") in 1925. It was a hit for Edwards on the Pathe record label--Pathe 025128.

Lyrics:

http://www.geocities.com/Cag03/NovWhoTakesCare.html

-- Memory (l@n.e), November 03, 2002.



And you can hear the song by scrolling down the following page to the link at the song's title...

http://www.redhotjazz.com/cliffedwards.html

-- Memory (l@n.e), November 03, 2002.


Memory, that is fabulous!!!! I can't believe you actually found all those old songs. My apple computer won't let me play them yet, but I'm looking for a helper application to download, so I can. I recognized several other songs of Edward's, as well, and I just gotta hear "If you can't land 'er on the old veranda".

I didn't remember the lyrics quite right after nearly 50 years though- "Who's lays the bricklayer's daughter while the bricklayer's busy laying bricks"? No wonder I turned out like I did!

Thanks for the research; who says time travel is impossible?

-- Lon (lgal@exp.net), November 03, 2002.


Wow! That song really DOES exist! ;-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 06, 2002.

Lon, you didn't even yell "Honey, I'm home!" Glad you're back!

-- helen (bout@damn.time.too), November 06, 2002.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. Fans of old tunes should also check out this page...

http://www.geocities.com/dferg5493/realaudiopage.html

-- Memory (l@n.e), November 28, 2002.



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