Tipper and Paul
A few weeks back a friend and I were talking about an upcoming project we’re both working on. We strayed off the subject at hand and started talking about folks we remembered in the community.
As we moved on to talking about our families the conversation went from days gone by to present time, calling our attention to the fact that life moves at warp speed. After a small pause in the conversation we both said “time has made a change in me” at the same time.
My friend and I were referencing an old song. I remember hearing folks sing it in church and more recently I’ve been listening to Pap and Granny sing it on the cd I rediscovered a while back.
Harkins Freye wrote “Time Has Made a Change in Me.” He was from West Virginia and published gospel music in the 1920s. You can hear Pap and Granny’s version of his song in the music bar below the lyrics.
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Time Has Made a Change in Me
Time has made a change since my childhood days;
Many of my friends have gone away.
Some I never more in this life will see.
Time has made a change in me.
Time has made a change in the old home place;
Time has made a change in each smiling face.
And I know my friends can plainly see
Time has made a change in me.
In my childhood days, I was well and strong;
I could climb the hillside all day long.
I am not today what I used to be.
Time has made a change in me.
When I reach my home in that land somewhere,
With my friends who wait to meet me over there,
Free from pain and care I will mpever be.
Time has made a change in me.
Time has made a change in the old home place;
Time has made a change in each smiling face.
And I know my friends can plainly see
Time has made a change in me.
Summer always makes me think back to childhood days.
If I sit still and listen close enough I can almost hear Steve telling Pap and Granny some big story while the screen door slams as I chase Paul inside from playing on the swing-set.
Tipper
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Love all those pictures especially the Daniel Boone coon hat Paul is wearing. And that sweet voice saying mama as the song ends . Priceless memories to cherish forever.
Here is another precious memory you are sharing with us. I could just picture them sitting there singing this too. They sure sounded good together. You truly have had a blessed life. I know that you know that and I also know you appreciate it too. Thanks for sharing with us. God bless!
How wonderful it is that you can listen to your daddy and momma sing together. My first stepdad was a musician and he died in September of 1991. We were close, when I get to missing him I put in a cassette and listen to him play and sing. I remember sitting in the living room listening to him sing “If We Make through December” by Merle Haggard. Still to this day I can’t listen that song without crying. Back then I didn’t even like country music or bluegrass and I love it now. I think it is because I was around it so much when I teenager and I didn’t appreciate it then.
The song Time Has Made a Change is very familiar to me, we have sung it since I can remember but as I have grown older myself, I really feel the true meaning of it. Your Mother and Daddy had beautiful harmony, which I absolutely love! We sing as a family and I know the joy that singing brings! May God Bless you all!!
Thank you for sharing the song of Pap and Granny singing together. Their harmony was super good!! You have a real treasure in these recordings.
it should be playing on the radio.
Love these songs. Reminds me of my Grannie singing around the house. Miss her. I’m glad to have those memories….Jack
Had to stop your youtube video to come and listen to this … it’s lovely.
oh i heard this song so many years ago. surely time is really changing
We still sing that song at church. We still do what some folks would call the “old-timely class singing” where the whole congregation sings from the hymnal. Someone from the congregation will pick a song from the hymnal and lead the rest of the congregation.
My Grandpa always liked that one.
I enjoyed Granny and Pap’s version. The harmony was beautiful.
Your Momma has as good a voice as the rest of you! Love the song…
wow love this totally awesome it is just amazing how fast time flys
That is my favorite song to sing along with when I am out in my truck. Here lately I’ve not been able to drive much and I’m considering bringing it in the house. I love to hear Granny and Pap sing together. There is a harmony there that transcends their voices. Even without being told you would know they were man and wife.
I have never heard this song before, and it brought tears to our eyes. My brother and I had a swing set similar to yours and we spent many a summer day on it. Someone else lives in my childhood home, and I am happy he is taking an interest in it. Mama’s homeplace is long gone. It was torn down to make progress for better things and instead things in that area went downhill.
At Mama’s funeral the preacher read an account of a talk Mama had with my youngest brother out on the porch swing. Mama told him change would come whether we wanted it to or not. So true! We have lost nearly all the old ones in our families and those remaining are in the nursing home. Like most everybody, we took for granted so much that is gone.
Hi Tipper,The picture and song was beautiful,causeing a mixture of tears! Yesterday I come across a song “I just see you” on youtube sung by Tracy Newmen, two reminders of where I am in life.God Bless. Belva-Jean
Love those old songs. They were simple but told a true story and were easy to understand and relate to in our everyday lives. How could you not believe.
That was really good. Enjoyed very much. I’ve listened to it 3 times this morning Someone used to sing and play the guitar with this song in our church but I can’t now remember who it was.
As much as I love Summer it also sometimes tears at my heartstrings. We had a swing much like the one in your picture. I would sit there for what seemed like hours just lazy and carefree. There were miles of mountains to walk with siblings or friends. We even had a Lover’s Lane that was isolated in daytime, and made a perfect bike trail. There are strong memories of my Mother with her old wringer washer hanging the clothesline so full it totally blocked the view. She never wanted help with that chore because she loved it. Lazy carefree days when love was not always shown, but was totally felt and understood.
The song was beautiful. I don’t know why, but your songs with Pap and Granny always remind me more of the harmony and singing I heard at church growing up. I love Granny in harmony! I went to many funerals because we always had so many kinfolk and friends. I have jokingly said that made up my entire social circle growing up. It was also common then for somebody to have a hymnal and sing an old gospel song at graveside. I remember Amazing Grace seemed to be a favorite.
I grew up with a wringer washer. In the summer, it took all morning to wash several loads, from after breakfast until lunch time, around noon. The lines were strung between all the trees in the back yard, and in the summer we had to look out for rain or storms and run out and bring in the clothes. Mama did not get an automatic washer until I was a freshman in college. I spent a good part of my childhood going to funerals, because we had many elderly folks in our church. I do not recall anyone singing a song at the graveside.
I love this song! I’ve never heard it before, but now I want to learn it and sing it.
Change is the “only” constant. Some changes come a lot slower – some fast as lightning – but change is always happening. . . .
Aw that was precious. I don’t remember that song but I am sure my grandmother knew it. She took me to a lot of revivals when I was a kid visiting. She played the piano and I still have a few of her old gospel song books that she used. What a treasure you have with both your mother and father singing. Beautiful!!
That song is the only one my Grandma ever sang in church as a solo. She was very reserved in public and it was unusual for her to draw attention to herself. She was tough as a pine knot in my boyhood years. I miss her.
Now time’s changes are becoming ever more evident in me. I’m having to try to grow old gracefully. The growing old part just happens but the gracefully is hard work
I don’t remember having heard this song before, but it’s so true … time has made a change in me!
Like so many songs, there is a lot of truth in it. That’s a really sweet picture of you and Paul. It seems so strange to hear Granny singing, I don’t remember hearing her do that much.
It seems like life flows on inevitably, like the tide.
Boy, does this bring back memories, I had never heard the song until I started going to Church with my Wife when we were dating, almost 40yrs ago, but it rings like a bell, many many revival services, the roof would lift from the voices of the congregation with songs like this, so good to hear your Mom and Dad sing it.
Tipper,
That song reminds me of Pop and Sally Nelson when they sung songs at our Church at Topton Baptist/ “What would I Leave Behind.” They were Old as the Hills back then, but I remember they could really harmonize. Pop played the Guitar and I was just small. That was before Me and Harold started singing. …Ken