I was walking through Wal-Mart a few weeks back when I happened upon a childrens' book titled The Five Little Pumpkins. This also happened to be the name of a song we sang back in grade school which, believe it or not, I'd remembered verbatim after all these years. The book was an exact copy of the song's lyrics, and I thought it would be a perfect Halloween gift for Evan. It goes:
Five little pumpkins were sitting on a fence
The first one said "Oh my it's getting late!"
The second one said "There are witches in the air!"
The third one said "But we don't care!"
The fourth one said "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said "I am ready for some fun!"
Oooo Wooo went the wind, and out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!
Pretty deep, eh? Anyone else remember that one after all these years?
This also reminds me of an incident I had back in music class when I was, oh... say eight years old. We used to sing the Peanut Butter and Jelly song, which went something along the lines of:
Peanuuuut, peanut butter.... and Jelly!
Peanuuuut, peanut butter.... and Jelly!
First you take your Jelly and you spread it, you spread it, you spread it...
Peanuuuut, peanut butter.... and Jelly!
And so on. It was a very stupid song, even for an eight year old. Anyway, one day our music teacher related that she'd recently been involved in a concert where she'd sung this very tune, and it also happened to be the first time she'd performed anything in front of her parents. After hearing this, in a moment of candid honestly which I didn't intend to be heard as audible as it was, I sarcastically remarked, "I bet they were reeaal proud.
The music teacher stared at me in stunned disbelief, and stammered out, "Matthew... I want you to sit there and think about what you said!"
Happy that she chose not to press the issue, I went back to daydreaming about being somewhere other than school, doing anything other than sitting through music class. A few moments later another student leaned over and asked gravely, "Are you thinking about what you said?"
"No," I replied offhand, surprised that it would even be in question.
For some reason, this fellow student thought my reply was rather humorous, and his laughter garnered me more dirty looks, but the issue dropped without further incident.
Amazing what ya remember after all these years.
Speaking of which, I've eaten Sloppy Joes for supper a couple of times in the past month. Any Sloppy Joes fans in the audience? Well since we are on the subject of the good ol' days, let me just tell you that in my house growing up, we didn't call 'em Sloppy Joes, we called 'em Sloppy Jones. Why? Well, some of you may recall that I have a fondness for the railroad, particularly old steam locomotives. This affinity was present even as a young child, when I would eagerly watch the trains go by on the tracks a block distant to see the engines and whether or not they'd have a caboose in tow (remember cabooses?).
Anyway, the Disney channel used to run a short cartoon on the life of Casey Jones, the famous train engineer. Since I liked trains, and Casey Jones was a famous train engineer, it was only natural that in our house, Sloppy Joes should become Sloppy Jones. And after making the suggestion, the name caught on and for many years thereafter, this is what they were called.
Now, thanks to the miracles of Al Gore's internet, we can relive those old classics from the past. So, without further ado, I give you, Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer: