Music of Our Parents

Happiness is . . . blogging about 
my family.

photo Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com





I'm the oldest of seven -- five boys and two girls.  Our family was always subdivided into the "big kids" and the "little kids."  When I was not yet four years old, my mother gave birth to my sister -- the fourth child in LESS THAN four years!  After a gap of a few years, three more boys came along.  Those who come from large families know this -- you and your siblings did not grow up in the SAME family.  

As one of the "big kids", I distinctly recall my parents singing when we were in the car.  They could both sing pretty well and could even harmonize.  I have a ready list of songs they used to sing and decided to start calling my siblings to see who shared this memory.

As I predicted, this was largely a phenomena shared by the "big kids".  My brother, Tim, third in line (and one of the big kids) had an explanation.  He can recall the year and make of each car our family ever had and said our parents sang until they got a car that had a radio.  He even recalled that once they had a car with a radio, the only functioning speaker was on the passenger side of the car.  My Dad was always turning the volume up while my mother was constantly requesting that he turn it down.

Over Thanksgiving dinner we compared notes on what songs we each recalled.  Sure enough -- the "big kids" certainly recalled more singing than the "little kids."  I thought it would be fun to blog about once a week on the songs we all recall.  So here is installment #1 -  I See the Moon.

I searched and searched for a version of the song that had the same lyrics my parents used to sing. I finally found them with this version recorded by Judy Collins. I was also under the impression that this song was a World War II song that reflected the yearning of two lovers  -- although distance separated them, they could view the same moon.

I was wrong.  According to Wikipedia, the song was composed by Robert Meredith Willson of Music Man fame and was released in 1954.  I was five years old. You can find it through Amazon as an MP3 download.  Here are the lyrics:

I See the Moon

I see moon and the moon sees me 

The moon sees someone that I'd like to see

God bless the moon and God bless me

And God bless the one I love.

I sometimes think the Lord above

Created you for me to love

He picked you out from all the rest

To be the one Dear that I love the best.

Over the mountains and
Over the sea
Back where my heart is longing to be
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

I've found numerous versions of the lyrics on the internet, but these are closest to what my parents sang. I wanted you to be able to refresh your memory, so I combined the music with some pictures of the moon into a small photoshow.  Click on the link. I encourage you to comment on the songs you remember from your youth in the comments section below.

Note: The pictures in the photoshow are used with the permission of the photographers through Creative Commons licensing. 

Moon Photos
http://www.joiseyshowaa.com/
*L*u*z*A*'s photostream  http://www.flickr.com/photos/luchilu/