Childhood fears in appalachia

Somewhere between adolescence and adulthood memory seems to bury many rites of childhood. As Chitter and Chatter grow up, I’m often rediscovering things that I haven’t thought about in years.

The pure joy of playing in the creek, making mud pies, those hand clapping rhymes like Ms. Mary Mack Mack Mack all dressed in black black black, and more recently middle school crushes.

From the beginning, my life has been surrounded by music. When I hear a song from childhood it always make me feel young. Like I’m a little girl, instead of a Mom with two little girls of her own.

When I’m outside on a warm summer night hearing the katydids, and frogs, seeing the lightning bugs, if I am still a moment, I feel young again. Playing hide-n-seek, telling ghost stories, and walking home in the dark to a house lit up with love.

Today’s Pickin & Grinnin Spot features a song written, by Paul, I’ll Be Young.

I hope you enjoyed Paul’s song. Please, leave a comment about what makes you “Be Young”.

Tipper

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20 Comments

  1. Playing with my grandchildren and going to the Oregon coast and walking on the beach makes me at least think I am young. I love this song that Paul wrote.

  2. i thought i left a comment about the music and about our own version of “picken and grinnin” in our kitchen on kauai. how i miss marty (mando) and mark (banjo) playing one on one…some magically times. oh…go to my blog…i set the fabric giveaway a little different and i think will be easier to find. always love your comments

  3. Wonderful!!! Thanks for giving us a window into your kitchen with those amazing boys. I feel young walking down a country road, riding a bike, picking flowers, and just the sight of a big hawk in the sky will take me back, too.

  4. I think our kids let us relive our childhoods over again as we share theirs. Mine have certainly done it for me and it is great to enjoy their lives with a different perspective than when I was a kid myself. Music helps me feel young too, especially as the kids are discovering the music my brother and I played when we were young and enjoying it. great post!

  5. You know music from certain times in my life always brings me back to that time, so when I hear music from my childhood/teen years I am instantly back.. I also LOVED RC (glass bottle mind you) and moon pies, those were a favorite!

  6. Tipper I loved that video. My Granny Bert used to tell us kids that when my grandad “Pop” as he was called proposed to her that he took the light off the lightening bug and placed it on her finger like a diamond. Romantic, huh? I can’t tell you how many poor ol’ Fireflies lost their lives by us girls pulling their butts off and sticking them on our ring fingers like diamonds. It sounds cruel, but we just had to. How can you play engagement and David Cassidy of the Partridge Family propose without a diamond ring? God Bless, Celene

  7. Tipper I loved that video. My Granny Bert used to tell us kids that when my grandad “Pop” as he was called proposed to her that he took the light off the lightening bug and placed it on her finger like a diamond. Romantic, huh? I can’t tell you how many poor ol’ Fireflies lost their lives by us girls pulling their butts off and sticking them on our ring fingers like diamonds. It sounds cruel, but we just had to. How can you play engagement and David Cassidy of the Partridge Family propose without a diamond ring? God Bless, Celene

  8. Wow – I am here at my computer giving a standing ovation — that song was wonderful!!! What makes me young again? Going back to my hometown and being with my dear dear friends I have known since I was 5 yrs old. So much to laugh about, talk about, and we just plain enjoy each other’s company (there’s six of us). Also, time with my grandson explaining everything from butterflies to grass on his shoes. Got to love it.

  9. i always like the videos…i miss mark’s old partner marty. he is a mando player and the friday nights were just marty and mark on the banjo and there was some amazing music played. mark just plays by himself now with me singing with him. one of these days we will hook up with a few more players and get something going. it was 60 today!!!!!

  10. My 6-year-old son makes me feel young! Playing children’s games and singing the songs makes me young and happy!

  11. My 6-year-old son makes me feel young! Playing children’s games and singing the songs makes me young and happy!

  12. I loved the video!
    I think music has a powerful ability to transport us in time. I listened to the radio all through my teen years, so whenever I hear a song that was popular back then, I am young again.
    I wasn’t as fortunate as you to grow up in a musical family, so I have no memories of music in the house, prior to turning 13 and getting my first transistor radio (really dating myself).
    The other things you mentioned, though, do take me back to the days of my childhood. I can’t see a firefly, or “lightening bug” as we called them, without feeling like a small child again, resisting the urge to run in the house for a fruit jar.

  13. Tipper,
    Playing in the creek and looking for copperheads (to catch or avoid, depending on the size of it) that’s a great memory.
    Recently, I traveled with my kids past my Pappaw and Granny’s old house and pointed out my memories….
    “See that creek? We played in that creek everytime we came here. See that little creek that feeds it? It starts all the way up at the back of Granny’s yard. That’s where the outhouse used to sit right next to it.”
    “EEeewwwww!!!” they said with perfect timing and disgust.
    “Kids, we never did get sick from playing in that the creek. And Granny had the prettiest flowers planted all down it.”
    Boy, the times sure have changed.

  14. i remember when i was younger poppin the tar bubbles on the road, flying june bugs on a string, going down to the market and if we were REAL good getting a RC cola and a moon pie. nowadays my boys keep me young. theres no such thing as vanity with three boys around!

  15. Tipper,
    I just love the Pickin & Grinnin songs! While I was listening today, I was reminded of the time I came home from kindergarten and told my family I had sung a song for my teacher. “What did you sing?” asked my Grandmother, sitting around the dinner table with my Mom and Dad and seven siblings. “I sang the one Dad taught me,” I said and went right into:
    “Once there was a girl I knew by the name of Slue-foot Sue, she was chief engineer at the shirt-tail factory down by the riverside view … her form was all she had, she had a face like a soft-shelled crab … every night she would tussle with a patent leather bussle … boy, she was bad!”
    My poor Grandmother spit her coffee across the table and my mother fired at my father as she helped wipe the coffee from my Grandmother’s front, “Harold, please teach her another song, and this time make it a decent one!” My Dad still laughs whenever we remember that time when I was young. đŸ™‚

  16. Wow! What a lovely song. Paul looks and sounds a lot like James Taylor.
    What makes me be young? Remembering trips to Ocean City with my family … running the ridges of Rockingham County Virginia … sitting on the porch watching sunsets.
    Missing those things now that I live in the City … but can still dream, can’t I? xxoo

  17. Tipper, I want to come sit in the middle and sing along. I want to clog with your girls. And give you a big hug! Thanks for the memories!

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