The other day a few friends and I were talking about how fast 2014 has flown by. I said “Forget about 2014 I don’t even know where 2013 went!”
As we bemoaned the fact that the older you get the faster time flies by I was reminded of the John Prine song Pap and Paul used to sing. By the time they started singing the song-the 20th Century was already over-instead of about to be over-so Paul changed the words slightly to accommodate the 21st Century (he also left a verse out). You can go here to see the original lyrics.
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Back in 1899, everybody sang “Auld Lang Syne”
A hundred years’ll take a mighty long time for every little boy and girl.
Well there’s just one thing that I would like to know
Where did the 20th century go?
I’d swear it was here just a minute ago
All over this world.
All over this world, all over this world
The 20th century is already over, all over this world.
Does anybody recall the Great Depression?
I read all about it in the True Confession
Sorry I was late for the recording session
But somebody put me on hold.
Did anybody see those linoleum floors
Petroleum jelly, and two World Wars?
They all went around in revolving doors
All over this world.
All over this world, all over this world
The 20th century is already over, all over this world.
Old Father Time he’s a rumbling and a rapping
Standing at the window, thumpin’ and a tappin’
Everybody’s waiting for something to happen.
I hope it don’t happen to you!
You know the Judgment Day is a getting nearer
There it is in the rear view mirror.
If you duck down then I could see a little clearer
All over this world!
All over this world, all over this world
The 20th century is already over, all over this world.
All over this world, all over this world
The 20th century is already over, all over this world.
written by Steve Goodman and John Prine…paraphrased by Paul Wilson
It’s a very catchy song-give it a listen and see if you don’t agree.
Hope you enjoyed the song!
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Tipper,
This is for Ed…defining time without using the word.
“I waddled into this world wearing diapers, eighty years later and now it appears I am going to waddle out wearing diapers!”
Not me yet, but have the dread!
Our Internet service was off yesterday, so I am late posting!
Thanks Tipper,
PS…Friday my son and I were in a deep conversation about Father Time! He was showing me pictures of some of his friend’s children, and I was not believing his friends had children in their twenties. One a clogging star at a dinner theater in Pigeon Forge.
Another thing, in the Appalachians why don’t they call Dinner theaters, Supper Theaters?
Memories! I used to play a lot of Jon Prine songs, and one or two Steve Goodman tunes as well, back in the years when I never went far without a guitar case in one hand. Great songwriters and performers, saw them both play more than once, years and years ago.
I surely do understand what Tipper’s saying, the older people are, the faster time seems to fly for them. Not only that though, suddenly one stops, looks around and wonder where all the previous years of their life went. Went so steadily for a while, then suddenly sped up and left us wondering.
Have you experienced either of these?
God bless.
RB
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All we have is time. Nothing else we presume to possess is ours, but for time. What would we have if time were taken away? Only what we are! With no future and no past! We are all striving for perfection, never to achieve it?
I defy anyone to define time without using the word itself.
Old people are time travelers. We journey from worlds unimaginable to our children and grandchildren, and disappear beyond the stars.
But history lives, and particularly family history, for those of us alive today are the ancestors of tomorrow. We are templates, merging our stories with those of ages past to create the future which becomes, inexorably and relentlessly, a vision of the past in turn.
It has been said that everyone dies twice, first when they stop breathing and second when the bell tolls the last person for whom they lived in memory. Things are lost; friends fail; success flees; honors are forgotten. We too will vanish like smoke. But families rise above the stream, islands in the river of time, and packing our record in Grandmother’s Trunk books passage on the Wilderness Road that each generation travels anew.
Tipper–One of my favorite writers, Havilah Babcock, had a comparable perspective on time. “Boyhood improves with age,” he wrote, “and the more remote it is the nicer boyhood seems to become.”
As for John Prine, the man is an extraordinary talent, and if there has ever been a finer tribute to a lost world than his “Paradise” I’ve yet to encounter it.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
In 2008 my then 8 year old grandson looked up and asked, ” Grampie, have you ever noticed the older you get the faster time goes by?”
In 2008 my then 8 year old grandson looked up and asked, ” Grampie, have you ever noticed the older you get the faster time goes by?”
In 2008 my then 8 year old grandson looked up and asked, ” Grampie, have you ever noticed the older you get the faster time goes by?”
Nothing could be sweeter than to hear these voices singing in harmony as the start of my day.
Oh, thank you for this wonderful poem/song, Tipper. It certainly is true! I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting and thinking about the strangeness of time — how some things that happened “just yesterday” really happened 50 years ago and others that I can hardly remember happened a few months (or even days) ago. This song also reminded me of the little verse: Life is short. It will soon be past. What you do for the Lord is all that will last.
Yes, time seems to go on faster as we age. It’s hard for me to believe that I have been retired for ten years already. I get up early each day and as I progress through the day, it seems like its dinner time and time to get ready to sleep and start the day all over again.
Yes, time’s a-gettin’ faster and I’m a-gettin’ slower.
Tipper: This will be a new song for Jim to ‘play along’ on his mandolin. Hope your September is not going by as swiftly as mine. We have several BOOK TRIPS down to SC and also here in the mountains. WHAT FUN!
Eva Nell
You mean Guitar Man and Mandolin Man. Talk about time flying, those two certainly have grown and matured.
Yep, your right, it’s a catchy tune!
We were at a realtor’s open house in Asheville a few years ago. The young lady was showing us around and pointed to the basement floor covering and said, “This flooring is a new material called Linoleum.” It looked a lot different than the linoleum I remember, but we had to tell her that linoleum is not new.
Once we had a pastor who observed that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes! He was right.
Love this, anything by John Prineville is a favorite