The other day, on the 23rd of May, I honoured my late mother's birthday. If she was alive, she'd have been 76.
She died when she was younger than I am now.
She was a woman with big-time emotional problems, and we kids had a pretty nasty childhood as a result. But the one thing my mother gave us (as did every member of my family from the previous generations) was the freedom to love music. Music was fostered freely in our houses; there were always singalongs and family concerts, contests to be the first to learn all the words to a song, and everywhere we went there was a radio or a console record player to keep everybody entertained. My grandfather's '56 Ford never came with a radio, so when we travelled in the car, someone always brought along a radio so we wouldn't miss out on the thrill of road music!
Anyway, one of my mother's favourite tunes was a little National Film Board vignette that used to play on TV, starting in about 1979 or 80. It was usually tucked in with a commercial break and when it came on, she would run from the kitchen (it usually came on around supper time), and take a brief reprieve from cooking to dance to the waltz. Sometimes, we'd join in and sing along in harmonies, and bask in the moment.
I betcha some of my Canadian friends will remember this one.
Happy Birthday, Old Gal. Always in my thoughts.
And - of course - if you want to sing along...
THE LOG DRIVER'S WALTZ
If you ask any girl from the parish around,
What pleases her most from her head to her toes;
She'll say, "I'm not sure that it's business of yours,
But I do like to waltz with a log driver."
CHORUS
For he goes birling down, and down white water,
That's where the log driver learns to step lightly;
It's birling down, and down white water,
The log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
When the drive's nearly over, I like to go down
And watch all the lads as they work on the river;
I know that come evening they'll be in the town,
And we all want to waltz with a log driver.
CHORUS
To please both my parents I've had to give way,
And dance with the doctors and merchants, and lawyers;
Their manners are fine but their feet are of clay,
And there's none with the style of my log driver.
CHORUS
Now I've had my chances with all sorts of men,
But none is so fine as my lad on the river;
So when the drive's over, if he asks me again,
I think I will marry my log driver.
CHORUS
Birling down, and down white water,
The log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
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