Check out the short video below… Astronaut, Chris Hadfield wrings out a washcloth on the International Space Station. 

It’s so cool!  Show it to your kids and watch it.  It will make you feel like a kid again.

All kids should watch this video below for inspiration… it’s a good answer the question, "Why should I do well in school?"

"A line is a dot that went for a walk." –Paul Klee (Artist)

What a great quote!

Here are some videos based on that concept…

Here’s an animated one…

Here’s one where the dot goes from one kids drawing to another…

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

The Cuckoo

In April,
Come he will.
In May,
He sings all day.
In June,
He changes his tune.
In July,
He prepares to fly.
In August,
Go he must.

*****
The Cuckoo Song can be found in Ballads and Lyrics (1891) by Katharine Tynan.

Cuckoo Song

Cuckoo, cuckoo!

In April skies were blue

As every hedgerow knew;

And there was you.

In April

The cuckoo shows his bill,

With windflowers on vale and hill.

O, Love!

Sweet was April, sweet was April!

Cuckoo, cuckoo!

In May his song was true,

And the world was new

For me and you.

In May

He sings all day,

All the long night that’s sweet with hay.

O, Love!

Blithe was the May, blithe was the May!

Cuckoo, cuckoo!

Last June the roses grew

In many a place we knew,

I and you.

In June

He changes his tune.

A young man’s fancy changes soon.

O, Love!
Fleet was June, fleet was June!

Cuckoo, cuckoo!
His notes are faint and few,
The lily is dying too,
For the rose there is rue.
In July

Away will he fly,

His notes blown back from an empty sky.

O, Love!
Sad was July, sad was July!

Cuckoo, cuckoo!
No more we listen to
The merry song we knew,
I and you.
In August
Go he must,

Love and lovers will turn to dust.

O, Love!
Cold is August, cold is August!

“A very healthy curiosity, if not a real interest, concerning public affairs is growing up among women.”

You have to respect this given the time and place. 

We’ve come a long way ladies!

Nancy Silverrod, a Librarian, wrote to me about a variation of the rhyme Miss Lucy Had a Baby called Miss Lulu.  She was wondering if it has a connection to Susan B. Anthony and her alligator purse!  Susan B Anthony was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement.

Here’s what Nancy wrote:

There are numerous variations to this jump rope rhyme, this being one of the rarer ones [below]… It is reputed to refer to Susan B. Anthony and the 1896 California woman suffrage campaign. She supposedly carried her speeches in an alligator purse. I am trying to find an actual source linking her to this version other than the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, NY.

Miss Lulu had a baby, she called him tiny Tim.
She put him in the bathtub, to see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water! He ate up all the soap!
He tried to swallow the bathtub, but it wouldn’t go down his throat!!
Call for the doctor!
Call for the nurse!
Call for the lady with the alligator purse!
"Mumps!" said the doctor. "Measles!" said the nurse.
"Vote!" said the lady with the alligator purse!

If anyone has the following pamphlet, it may be included there: Johnson, Margaret.  "Singing and Song Making Among Children."  Los Angeles:  International Children’s Center, 16 pages.

Any help would be appreciated.

Nancy Silverrod, Librarian

This is an intriguing question, can anyone help answer it?

Thanks in advance!

Mama Lisa

There’s a jump rope rhyme about Lincoln Beachey (1887 – 1915) one of the earliest aviators.  He was the first to do many stunts while flying… until one fateful day in 1915 when his plane lost its wings while flying upside-down.  He ended up landing in the San Francisco Bay and drowning. 

Children soon started singing this jump-rope rhyme to commemorate him.  Some kids still jump rope to it…

Lincoln Beachey thought it was a dream
To go up to Heaven in a flying machine.
The machine broke down and down he fell.
Instead of going to Heaven he went to…

Lincoln Beachey thought it was a dream
To go up to Heaven in a flying machine.
The machine broke down and down he fell.
Instead of going to Heaven he went to…

Ad infinitum

Photo: Beachey doing a loop above San Francisco around 1914

Beachey was so popular in his day that even Carl Sandburg wrote a poem about him……

TO BEACHEY, 1912

RIDING against the east,
A veering, steady shadow
Purrs the motor-call
Of the man-bird
Ready with the death-laughter
In his throat
And in his heart always
The love of the big blue beyond.

Only a man,
A far fleck of shadow on the east
Sitting at ease
With his hands on a wheel
And around him the large gray wings.
Hold him, great soft wings,
Keep and deal kindly, O wings,
With the cool, calm shadow at the wheel.

Check out Radiolab's Podcast about Lincoln Beachey to learn more.

Here are links to a couple of Thomas Jefferson’s actual recipes.  The documents are not great quality but they’re fascinating to see…

Jefferson’s Recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream

Jefferson’s Method for Making Coffee

Meringue Recipe (in French)

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Have you ever heard of Safety Songs?  If you grew up in New York in the 1940’s, like our correspondent Richard Stark, I bet you have.  In the New York City school system, teachers would teach them to kids.  Richard remembers growing up singing them.

The Safety Songs that Richard grew up with were written by Irving Caesar in 1937.  Caesar also wrote such hits as "Tea for Two" and "I’m just a Gigolo". 

Here’s what the Irving Caesar site stated about the songs:

…to teach children about the potential dangers of everything from crossing the street to playing with matches. Caesar claimed the idea had come to him as he gazed out the window of his office, watching children walk along the streets, blithely disregarding traffic and the warning shouts of their mothers…. New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia [in office from 1934 to 1945] distributed the songs in New York City public school classrooms.

Richard Stark said, "I think people who didn’t live in NY City in the 1940s and go to the city schools missed an important part of childhood by not learning the Safety Songs!"

I was already aware of a Safety Song called "Remember Your Name and Address" because many people have written to me asking about it. Richard sent me the lyrics to a few more of the Safety Songs including, "Let the Ball Roll", "A Boy Stood on the Railroad Tracks" and "When You Look Out the Window".

Here’s "Let the Ball Roll" to give you a sample of one of these songs…

Let the Ball Roll

Play ball, play ball
Everyone likes to play ball
Sometimes you catch it
And sometimes you miss,
But when you miss, remember this:
Let the ball roll, let the ball roll
No matter where it may go
Let the ball roll, let the ball roll
It has to stop sometime you know.
Sometimes a truck flattens the ball
And makes it look like an egg
Though you can get many a ball
You never can get a new leg.

We’re lucky to have a recording of Richard singing this song.  This is authentic New York!

You can listen to more Safety Songs at Kiddie Records Weekly.

Many thanks to Richard Stark for singing Let the Ball Roll and for sharing this little part of musical history with us!

Mama Lisa

American children’s folk singer Ella Jenkins released a new cd earlier this year.  It’s called A Life of Song.

Ella’s music is a lovely way to introduce kids to American folk songs and spirituals.  She actually sings some of the songs with children on this cd.

The cd starts out with Pick a Bale of Cotton.  Ella explains how she picked cotton for fun with her brother as a child when visiting her grandmother in Mississippi!  Then she goes on to a lovely rendition of this song with a group of kids.

On the cd you’ll find a couple of versions of Little Sally Walker.  There are classic spirituals like, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and a stirring version of Amazing Grace.  Ella chose to sing Cotton-Eyed Joe slowly – it’s perfect for learning the lyrics!  On Summertime, Ella recites the song first and then sings it.  These are perfect moments for teaching kids these classic songs. 

The last song "On My way to Canaan" is a lovely way to end this cd.

Here you can hear Ella sing Go Tell Aunt Rhodie (note: this song is not on the "A Life of Song" cd)…

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Bittman encourages creative cooking with a minimal list of ingredients.  He puts in dollops and dashes and doesn’t agonize about every painstakingly measured item.  Because he doesn’t seem to measure!  That’s how our grandmas cooked.

I also like Bittman’s philosophy about meat.  He doesn’t try to get the whole world to be vegetarian.  Just to eat less meat.  It’s better for the health of your family and for the health of the planet.  After all, all those cows farting greatly contributes to global warming!

-Mama Lisa

Confucius Lives Next Door is an interesting account of life in Japan by T.R. Reid. Much of the book is spent explaining the role of Confucianism on Asian society.

Confucius said: Isn’t it a pleasure when you can make practical use of the things you have studied? Isn’t it a pleasure to have an old friend visit from afar? Isn’t it the sure sign of a gentleman, that he does not take offense when others fail to recognize his ability.

All Japanese people know these lines. They’re the opening of Analects by Confucius. They’re taught to children at school and quoted throughout Japan.

This book will give you a greater understanding, not only of Confucianism, but also of its impact on Japan.

A must read for anyone interested in learning more about Japanese life and culture.

Note: I want to make clear that I don’t agree with all of Reid’s criticisms of the West nor with his final conclusions. But I do think it paints an interesting picture of the East.

Many thanks to Dedy Dowo and all the children and their families for sharing these photos!

  Wes Brady

I pulled out some excerpts that revolved around songs that some of the former slaves remembered singing.  Some were kids songs, some dancing songs, and one, that appears to have been chanted, is for good luck for the New Years.

Below you’ll find a blurb about each person (written in the 1930’s) followed by an excerpt of their narrative.  If you’d like to read the whole Narrative you can go to the link above.

*****

MADISON BRUIN, 92, spent his early days as a slave on the Curtis farm in the blue grass region of Kentucky, where he had some experience with some of the fine horses for which the state is famous. Here, too, he had certain contacts with soldiers of John Morgan, of Confederate fame. His eyes are keen and his voice mellow and low. His years have not taken a heavy toll of his vitality.

…Us boys have good time playin’. Us draw de line and some git on one side and some de other. Den one sing out.

Chickama, Chickama, craney crow,
Went to de well to wash my toe;
When I git back my chicken was gone,
What time, old witch?

Den somebody holler out, ‘One o’clock’ or ‘Two o’clock’ or any time, and dem on one side try to cotch dem on de other side.

When I’s young I didn’t mind plowin’, but I didn’t like to ride at fust, but dey make me larn anyhow. Course, dat white boy and me, us like most anything what not too much work. Us go down to de watermelon patch and plug dem melons, den us run hide in de woods and eat watermelon. Course, dey lots of time dey ‘low us to play jis’ by ourselves. Us play one game where us choose sides and den sing:

Can, can, candio,
Old man Dandio,
How many men you got?
More’n you’re able to cotch.

Endurin’ de war us git whip many a time for playin’ with shells what us find in de woods. Us heered de cannons shootin’ in Lexington and lots of dem shells drap in de woods…

*****

Amos Clark

AMOS CLARK, 96, was born a slave of Robert Clark, in Washington County, Texas. After Amos was freed, he farmed near Belton, Texas. Amos now lives in Waco.

Dere was three hundred acres and more’n fifty slaves, and lots of work, clearin’ and buildin’ and plantin’. Some de cabins didn’t git no floor for two years. Jes’ quick as dey could, de men gits out clapboards for de walls and split puncheon slabs for floors and palin’s for fences.

Missis, she takes two de likelies’ young slaves and makes a garden, come spring. Somehow she git herself roses and posies and vegetables.

Dere warn’t no overseer. Marse Ed, he jes’ ride round on he big hoss and see to things. Us didn’t know nothin ’bout de war much, ’cause none us could read or write.

Dere was two fiddlers ‘mongst us, Jim Roseborough and Tom. Dey’d have de big barbecue for folks come from miles round, and coffee and chicken and turkey and dancin’ and fiddlin’ all night. Come daybreak, dey jes’ goin’ good. Us niggers dance back de quarters, and call

All eight balance and all eight swing,
All left allemond and right hand grand,
Meet your partner and prom’nade, eight,
Den march till you come straight.’

‘First lady out to couple on de right,
Swing Mr. Adam and swing Miss Eve,
Swing Old Adam befo’ you leave,
Don’t forgit your own – now you’re home.

Two, three years after dat I marries Liza Smith. Us has four chillen and all dead ‘cept John, and he lives out west.

After freedom Old Marse say kill a yearlin’ and have de big dinner and dance. De young ones he told to scatter out and hunt work, not to steal and work hard. Some de oldes’ ones he give a cabin and a patch of land. He say de niggers what want to stay on and work for him can, iffen he make enough to feed dem. I stays with Marse Ed, but he give me a patch of twenty acres and a sorghum mill to make a livin’ on. Dat how I gits on my way after freedom.

I gits dat sorghum mill to workin’ good and works de Roseborough land and my patch, and raises corn and cotton and wheat. I was plumb good at farmin’. I allus had a piece or two of money in my pocket since I can ‘member, but now de old man’s too old. De gov’ment gives me seven or eight dollars a month and I has a few chickens and gits by, and de good white folks nigh by sees dat dis old boy don’t git cold.

*****

HARRIET COLLINS was born in Houston, Texas, in 1870. Her family had been slaves of Richard Coke, and remained with him many years after they were freed. Harriet recalls some incidents of Reconstruction days, and believes in the superstitions handed down to her from slave days.

Dere been some queer things white folks can’t understand. Dere am folkses can see de spirits, but I can’t. My mammy larned me a lots of doctorin’, what she larnt from old folkses from Africy, and some de Indians larnt her…

…Show de new moon money and you’ll have money all month. Throw her five kisses and show her money and make five wishes and you’ll git dem. Eat black-eyed peas on New Year and have luck all dat year:

Dose black-eyed peas is lucky,
When et on New Year’s Day;
You’ll allus have sweet ‘taters
And possum come you way.

*****

Campbell Davis

CAMPBELL DAVIS, 85, was born in Harrison Co., Texas, a slave of Henry Hood. He remained on the Hood place about three years after he was freed, then farmed in Louisiana. In 1873 he married and moved back to Harrison Co., where he farmed until old age forced him to stop. He now lives with his nephew, Billie Jenkins, near Karnack. Campbell receives a $12.00 per month old age pension.

De women am off Friday afternoon to wash clothes and all de hands git Saturday afternoon and mos’ de man go huntin’ or fishin’. Sometimes dey have parties Saturday night and couples git on de floor and have music of de fiddle and banjo. I only ‘members one ring play:

Hop light, li’l lady,
The cakes all dough,
Don’t mind de weather,
Jus’ so de wind don’t blow.

*****

A couple of months ago I posted other songs from the Slave Narratives.  Those were from Virginia.  Check them out if you’re interested.  We also started a collection of Historical African American Kids Songs.  You can also hear some songs and Voices from the Days of Slavery at the Library of Congress.

-Mama Lisa

Music is the universal language of mankind. -Longfellow

*****

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. -Berthold Auerbach

*****

Music is very much the same as air and water. It’s very much a natural element of the earth, you know when you hear birds, when you hear leaves crinkling on the ground, that’s music… it’s essential to the quality of life… The more you can listen to music, the better your quality of life will be.

-Christian McBride

*****

All music is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments. -Whitman

*****

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible, is music. -Aldous Huxley

*****

You must listen as if listening were your life. -Phillips Brooks

*****

Music is the sound of the circulation in nature’s veins. It is the flux which melts nature. Men dance to it, glasses ring and vibrate, and the fields seem to undulate. The healthy ear always hears it, nearer or more remote.

-Thoreau

*****

Music can noble hints impart,
Engender fury, kindle love;
With unsuspected eloquence can move
And manage all the man with secret art.

-Addison

*****

Music is not only a source of noble pleasure – everyone admits that, at any rate in theory – it is a form of intellectual and spiritual training with which we really cannot afford to dispense.

-Sir Henry Hadow

*****

Art is the Manifestation of the Spiritual by means of the Material. -Newlandsmith

*****

The history of a people are found in its songs. -George Jellinek

*****

Feel free to share your favorite musical quote in the comments below.

Mama Lisa

There were photocopies of the storyboards of the beginning and end of the animation that Dali had worked on. But the middle of the story wasn’t totally worked out on paper. To make the completed animation, in addition to using Dali’s artwork for the project, Disney relied on a journal Dali’s wife had been keeping that detailed Dali’s plans for the piece. They also used a 3D model of Dali’s painting The Tower of Babel to give the animation more depth.

Originally, the film was going to include live people interposed with animations. According to an article on the Disney site (that has since been taken down), Dali was going to be in the film. He would have been working at an easel at one point, and an actor was going to ask him the meaning of the imagery in his works… such as the “melting” clocks. I found what Dali was going to respond to be very interesting:

“What you see here are just symbols. Surrealism is like a new language. Every object means something other than what it naturally appears to be. This watch, for instance — it symbolizes the relativity of time. Depending on the circumstances, in love for instance, one minute of waiting may seem like a thousand years…or an hour may pass as quickly as if it were a few seconds. The time of human being is different than mechanical time. It’s flexible and viscous, like the time in dreams.”

I thought that bit of dialog nicely elucidates Dali’s work and certainly the meaning of the clocks in his paintings.

The music in the animation is an adaptation of a ballad by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez. It was sung by Dora Luz.

Destino is coming out soon on DVD.

In the early pages of this book, you realize that Abe was a kid just like any other kid. For example, he wrote this at about eleven (can’t you imagine your kid writing this?):

Abraham Lincoln is my nam[e]
And with my pen I wrote the same
I wrote in both hast[e] and speed
and left it here for fools to read

Abraham Lincoln his hand and his pen
he will be good but god knows When

Kids love to write poems like this one!

Earlier in the book you realize what a different world Abe really grew up in. When he was seven, his family moved from Kentucky to Indiana. Though Abe was only at that point nearly eight, he helped his father build their family a log cabin, with the help of neighbors.

Now every time my poor kids have a little chore to do and they complain about it, I can’t help but say, “Abe Lincoln helped his father build a log cabin when he was only 7 years old!”

Here’s how Sandburg described that time in Abe’s life: “It had been a hard year… They had to chop down trees, clear away underbrush, on what few acres they planted after plowing the hard unbroken sod. Their food was mostly game shot in the woods nearby… One drawback was water supply. Abe or Sarah (his sister) had to walk nearly a mile to fetch spring water… They were part of the American Frontier, many others like them breaking ground never before broken, settling a new midwest territory.”

This makes you think how different and difficult life was back then. Yet it’s part of what helped shape who Abraham Lincoln was to become as a man.

Many thanks to Lila for the drawing of Abe!