With Sunday being Valentine’s Day there’s love in the air everywhere you look…or at least there’s folks talking about love in the form of flowers, jewelry, and candy.
The Deer Hunter and I never really celebrate Valentine’s Day and hearing the words mostly make me think of school days—you know exchanging paper Valentines and those little candy hearts with words on them.
Thinking of childhood days and those young loves also makes me think of relationships that don’t necessarily turn out the way we want them too.
There’s teeming millions of songs about love gone awry. Pap and Paul have sung more than a few of them.
It’s hard for me to choose a favorite video from the well over 200 videos we’ve uploaded to YouTube over the years.
Some of the videos I like have had thousands of views some of them have had barely any.
We uploaded “Write Me Sweetheart” back in 2010 and less than 3,000 people have viewed it. Roy Acuff wrote “Write Me Sweetheart.” Of course I’m biased, but I think Paul and Pap’s version is one of the best I’ve ever heard.
All these years later I can’t get over Pap’s great harmony, and Paul’s outstanding vocals and picking. I like seeing Pap’s untucked shirt which was a rare thing to see and I like that my nephew was there that day chopping along on the mandolin.
Even though the song’s tale of unrequited love doesn’t fit with Valentine’s Day, the old video brings feelings of great love to my heart.
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That is a good song> I like hearing your family sing it and I know it has it has a special meaning to you.
I always looked forward to Valentine’s day at school …. decorating boxes, swapping Valentines, eating candy hearts, so fun ……We’d keep those Valentine’s a long time. My Mama , (Mary Louise) always gave my sister and I a small heart shaped box of chocolates every year …we loved that..she always thought you couldn’t buy any better than Russell Stover’s… so when we grew up and married , we always made sure she had a heart of Russell Stover chocolate candy to savor on Valentines day … we simply enjoyed the chocolates , and the love in the giving… also at Christmas ,she always got us a box of chocolate covered cherries .. so good… we still buy some every Christmas. Looked forward to that every year too. Sometimes now though I buy them the day after the holidays, lots cheaper 🙂 … Enjoyed listening to the wonderful playing and singing …I enjoy the Hymns also, ”Never Grow Old”…. is one, and another 2 songs I like among the others is, ”Way Back In The Hills” and ”The Hills That I Call Home” Getting a lot of Icy weather over here in Kentucky Land, plus they say it’s gonna snow…yayyyyyyyy !!!, I like snow :))))
The Best!
They did a wonderful job! Tipper your husband and dad have beautiful voices. Your nephew did a wonderful job as well! Beautiful harmony! I know you are proud of them and proud for them!
Betty-Thank you! Paul is my brother 🙂 But you’re right they have beautiful harmony!!
Tipper, any time I see a video of Pap or see his picture at Grannies I get that feeling of love in my heart!
They did a wonderful job singing and playing!!! Thanks for sharing. My husband always loved those chocolate covered cherries but I would usually get them for him at Christmas. In later years, he loved those chocolate and peanut butter cups so I would get them for him on Valentine’s Day. I told him when we were first married don’t get me Roses as a gift because they don’t last. I love Carnations. I still remember the Valentine’s Day he brought me over a dozen Red Carnations with white baby’s breath and greens. It was stunning, smelled so good and lasted many weeks.
My husband always buys me 3 dozen roses for Valentines Day , I always fuss about it because I don,t need that many roses . He says Im, worth more than that, Wonderful ma,
My husband died Dec 13, 2016. Right before Valentine’s day in 2017 my daughter and I visited his grave and was raking it off as the rain has exposed a lot of small rocks. As I raked a rock got caught in the prongs and when I went to remove it I found it was shaped exactly like the picture you have at the beginning of this post. I felt like that was a valentine from my husband to let me know that he was nearby and that he still loved me.
awww….I tear’d up just a little… a prayer for you and your Family…
Martha-how wonderful is that! Chitter put a heart rock on Pap’s grave and it stayed there a long time till it finally disappeared.
I agree, Pap and Paul’s version is the best. Thanks for sharing.
I love those chocolate covered cherries too. I think I still have about 3 cherries left from some we had Christmas. We had to be careful when giving my father in law a box of the cherries, he would not stop until he ate the whole box and then he would get sick.
I enjoy listening to Pap and Paul and the others that sing and play with them. Some days I will get on you tube and start searching for songs by BP&A. I like all of the songs, but my favorites are the hymns. I have heard and sung these old hymns all of my life. At my church we still sing these old hymns, none of this new so called gospel music.
There is a lot of good old time gospel singing on youtube. When you get on and go through it and make a playlist. You can play them all day long if you want to. I have playlist of Blind Pig and Pressley Girls videos as well as others. Here’s a link to a song I heard today that really touched my heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe4NdFZRqcM
Here’s another one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaZCPZGhfA8
I agree that Pap and Paul’s version is the best!
I understand why Pap almost never had an untucked shirt. My Dad was the same way; no belt, untucked shirt, unshaven he considered bad marks on character. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
For Valentines Day I stock up at Christmas on Queen Anne dark chocolate covered cherries. They cannot be found after Christmas so I have to get them then. Sharon has an un-opened box she is going to open Sunday. (Queen Anne also has, so their website says, a 20 piece Valentines Day box but . . it is milk chocolate and I have never ever seen such a box.)
It is off the subject a bit and I think I have posted this before, but I think the chocolate covered cherry market is particularly good in Appalachia. We are right on the edge here and I usually have to go north towards the mountains to find them. I have gone to four or five places before I found them if I do any looking down here in the ‘flatland’. Walmart in Cleveland, GA has become my go-to place. They always try to stock them but they get gone fast and they do not keep them with other candy. Have to hunt up where they are and it is not the same place each year, different each of the last three years.
Chocolate covered cherries! They must have been the greatest treat when our Pops were young. Every year, even into his 80’s, my father would tell us if we really had to buy him a gift…………make it chocolate covered cherries.
The song is not familiar, and Pap and Paul always make their songs memorable. Around here somewhere I have a copy of an old poem Grandpa wrote my grandmother when they were quite young. Yes, that rugged logging man was smitten with the tiny dark haired Ida Mae. It was titled “Sweetheart at Morning” and had been kept safely tucked in an old chest until many years later when my uncle retrieved it and kept it. At a reunion, he surprised everybody with a copy. It was quite well written for the time, and Grandpa poured out his love for her on paper. Also they had somehow obtained a young picture of my grandpa with his earlier sweetheart named Ollie. It was said Ollie’s heart was broken when Grandpa was married. Some things never change, and I suppose love stories will always have their own sad and happy endings.
For a lovelorn sing, it’s certainly got a wonderful, happy and fast upbeat. I feel like I’m privileged to watch this jam session of really talented, top musicians as I drink my mud this wet, cool late winter morning. I’m not a Valentine’s Day celebrates myself. If a company could think up a holiday every day to sell their wares, I’m certain they would do so. How silly of a holiday is Valentines Day to anyone over 21 I think! Just say no to mass produced candy and stuffed toys from God knows where. Try an actual hug or a hand written card to let your MOTHER know you love her and her alone!!!! Lol the rest are fleeting lovers at best ( except for spouses who are tolerated and treasured for years. )
Well said, Margie!…..However, I think it is even more important to celebrate a spouse especially after many years of marriage…..I have been married to Mary for 25 years and I’m 74…..When we recognize each other on special occasions each year, like Christmas, Birthdays, Valentines Day and any day it strikes us to make each other a little more blessed, it is like taking our vows all over again.
I’ve been “tolerating” my “treasure” for going on 42 years… Happy Valentines Day!
God took my “treasure” away from me. It will be three years on March 25th. Our anniversary is on the 26th. It’s been rough on me and the kids but we wouldn’t want her back. We haven’t lost her, she’s only gone on ahead. She has made it to where we all want to be!
Well done!
That was beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
I can’t remember hearing that song before but it is great and you are right about Pap’s harmony.