The song Keep On The Sunny Side was made popular by The Carter Family, who used it as their theme song. In 2000 the song experienced a new popularity with the release of the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”
The song was written in 1899 by Ada Blenkhorn. According to the website Keep On The Sunny Side, “Blenkhorn was inspired to write the song after caring for an invalid nephew who always wanted to be pushed down the sunny side of the street.”
Sometimes when the girls are complaining about the aggravations of life, I drive them crazy reminding them it could be worse. They say “I know Mom I know. But…” and go on complaining about whatever thing that has upset them.
I know where I get the habit of reminding them life could always be worse. I got it from Pap. He always looks on the sunny side of life.
When I was in high school I worked at McDonalds. One night before my shift ended it started snowing. Pap called and said he’d come get me. I insisted I could drive home myself. I wrecked in the snow.
When I called Pap to tell him he’d have to come get me after all, I also told him I was so sorry I should have let him come pick me up in the first place. All Pap said was “You never know if I had come we might have wrecked and someone might have gotten hurt. No one got hurt that’s what matters.”
Chatter and Chitter are picking up Pap’s habit too, even though when I do it, I get on their nerves. I hear them use it on each other, one telling the other “Well it could be worse at least we can walk and at least we have a house to live in.”
Pap is a smart man it truly does help to make every effort to keep our minds on the sunny side of life.
I hope you liked the song.
Tipper
My “sunny side quote” (affirmation) since moving down south, since I’d grown up in big snow country, was,
“Well, could be worse. Could be snowing.”
Then one day it snowed here in NC, and I had to find another one for snowy days. LOL
God bless.
RB
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They did a great job as usual on this one. My mom always looked on the sunny side of things but daddy was a different story.
Tim Mc and Ed….Posts like yours yesterday are such that remind me of Galations 6:9 KJV .
Beautiful! Great Job!
Tipper,
Love the rendition of Keeping on the Sunny Side!…
There have been times when I realized that one different turn would have had dire consequences and a good thing I kept to the sunny side. A split second decision, would have meant a change in lifes course. You have to be thankful in the fact that you are meant to be where you are at a particular time. God is always aiming for the sunny side, reguardless of how you are feeling at the time. Have faith and keep on the sunny side!
Thanks Tipper,
Sunshine left the valley here hours ago first from rain and then from sunset. I’m behind the times reading your blog today, but I enjoyed the song. It is one of my very favorites. Blind Pig does a great job. I’ve played it many times on You Tube as a reminder to focus on the positive.
Tim Mc – My wife and I had to adopt too. Not just because we couldn’t have children, but because we encountered a five month old, twenty two pound boy who couldn’t do anything but eat. He didn’t laugh, he didn’t smile. All he did was eat and breathe. The breathing part was worrisome sometimes but eating wasn’t. Something told us he wouldn’t survive if we didn’t intervene. He is twenty now and don’t know any parents other than us. We love him and are as proud of him as if we had gone through the birthing process. He may never turn out to be anything in this world but he is one of God’s children who needed a family and we had no choice but to step up and do what had to be done. Besides that, if he don’t turn out the best, we can always say “it must be in his blood.”
Great song and positive message with beautiful harmony!
Tipper,
Sometimes a daddy can speak softly!
I love the way you, Paul, and Pap
do this song…I play it often from my favorites. In that Movie “Oh Brother where art Thou”, those
Peasall sisters sing it too. But
my favorite of them is “Father
Along” when they were young.
I’m still waiting on you and Paul
to sing something, and have Pap
harmonize the background…Ken
I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet…
When my daughter complained I would tell her, “It will get worse before it gets better.”
The meaning is that as long as you complain and do nothing about the situation it can only get worse. When you take steps to correct the situation or turn it over to God the situation begins to improve immediately. It took her a long time to fully grasp the idea.
great rendition and I surely needed a reminder to keep “sunny” today. Thanks!!!
That’s a beautiful picture Tipper. I love the hazed sun right smack in the middle….and those glorious mountains!
Yep, I believe keeping a positive attitude is the secret of a happy life. Sometimes, however, that’s hard to hold onto.
Pap is a wonder, indeed. I’ve seen him hold that attitude of looking on the positive side when I knew he was not feeling the best.
I remember an old tv show, I think it was the Dukes of Hazard. On of the players said “look on the bright side, the drought’s over.” This was in the midst of rain like we’ve had recently! LOL
PS: Lola, that’s Pap, on the left, Tipper’s brother Paul in the middle and Tipper on the right.
Good job on the song.
I agree that keeping things on the sunny side is a good teaching, but sometimes it is hard to look at things that way. It’s a good lesson and attitude to keep. Great singing and a good way to keep my Sunday working fine. Thanks!
Very good job on a song with a good message,, I’m 50yrs old and when I was your girls age I never imaged what life would through at me,, I met a wonderful girl and married her, the plans we had for life didn’t go like we planned, God had other plans and we’ve had to except that, we adopted a beautiful baby whom now is 16yrs old, most folks look at her and see what’s not there, we look at what is there, and are very proud of her, we too know it could be a lot worse, even tho we still have our dark days we try to see the sunny side of life as well. Good topic for today… The Pig reminds us to stop and count our blessings..
AMEN!
This is one of all time favorite songs! I saw Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White in concert last week, and they sung this song. They were talking about how that movie opened up old-time music to a whole new audience. Thanks for sharing.
Love the song, and even better love the attitude “at least we can walk and have a house to live in”
As always, I enjoyed ya’lls singing. If we look hard enough at any situation, we probably can figure out it could always be worse. At least that’s the way I’ve tried to look at things.
What a great job, as expected. Paul’s singing voice is pure as pure can be, even Pap’s harmony is sunny, and then there’s that purty girl off to the side to keep them both on time and in line;-)
Getting up in the morning and having a look at and listen to the Blindpig crew is enough to put a grumpy feller like me on the sunny side.
I love the singing ,could you post who each one that is in the groups that sing .