My English daughter, Sarah, is now an official American. She has an American husband and two American sons. For several years, now, I have sent tapes and, more recently, cds of my vinyl collection, with memories attached. Mostly made up of standard pop stuff, but occasionally I will do a bunch of novelty recordings. They play them in the car. Lots of driving to be done in Maine! Apparently, the influence is starting to seep into my grandson Toby`s mind. They were playing one of the novelty recordings the other day.
He likes to listen to “There’s a hole in the bucket” by Harry Belafonte and “Puff the Magic Dragon” [Peter, Paul and Mary], over and over again. As for Morecambe and Wise [pictured], they Boom – Ooh – Yatatata’d even after the music had stopped, and he did it for his dad, Ben, when they got home. Sarah Boomed, Ben Oohed and Toby Yatatata’d. I love that a 3 year old American boy is singing a Morecambe and Wise novelty song from over 50 years ago.
She turned Gordon is a Moron [Jilted John] off to place the order for his happy meal and Toby yelled out “Mummy, I wanted to hear about Gordon is a Moron” Ooops!
He didn’t like Lily the Pink by the Scaffold. Shame.
He asked “What song is this” about the Sparrow Song, just like he asked about Hercules’ girl – again and again and again. The Hercules thing is another story.
After a yawning incident, when trying to read The Hobbit to Sarah, when she was young, I gave up trying to make her listen to or read stuff that I wanted her to. I let it seep through naturally. It seemed to work and now it`s working again on the next generation.
I can`t wait to introduce Toby, and eventually Charlie, to Spike Milligan!
