Imagine my surprise when I opened my blog stats today and that found a higher than normal number of readers had viewed my blog since yesterday.
Of late , I have not been writing daily posts as I have been lost in research supporting my memories. Actually , I have been listening to a massive amount of golden oldies from the 50's and 60's . I would like to share every one of them, and tell you where and what I was doing in a world where something is always happening.
But I digress. Let it be known that it wasn't the quality of my recent posts ( non-existent for the most part ) that explained this anomaly.
A quick look into traffic sources showed that today , one source was the cause of over half the reads.
I thought ," Gee , I am not that interesting that someone would read 55 of my posts. Or am I?...Na-aa! Not likely."
It had to be something else.
Thanks to Google , I typed in the URL and was directed to a very 'cool' site indeed. It has plenty to look at ( great photography ) and plenty to read ( articles of all sorts-not too long). It is international in flavour and Canadian in every way.
The Canadian Railway News
http://www.okthepk.ca/
If you enjoy the news of railways in Canada and around the world , why not take a side step from this blog over to their website. You won't be disappointed.
...Oh! Thank you over at OKthePK for linking into my blog. It was a very pleasant surprise , indeed.
If those new people have the time, dig into my archives for stories of a family who grew up in a CPR Section House. Enjoy!
CPR Section House
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
When Music Became Social
I got the concept early that when people gathered together , music was a key to connecting them . An intimate sharing . Of like mind and purpose.
At home , it was listening to the radio ; spinning a record or two ; singing a song to which our family all knew the words ; or listening to someone sing a special one that suited their thoughts at the time.
It was joining the group on tunes that Aunt Ivy chorded on the piano. It was following along to television shows that provided the words at the bottom of the screen, in sync with the music.
It was watching Mum and Dad whirl a waltz around the kitchen to a love song Dad would whistle or sing. And it was putting on records when Mum and Dad were not around - trying to imitate the movements of dance.
It was attending Brownie Pack meeting on Tuesday nights and participating in bonding campfire songs.
It was going to the movie theatre on Saturday with a hundred other children and following the bouncing ball in films designed to bring us into order with song.
It was going to church on Sunday and singing hymns with the congregation at the specified times ,or learning memory ditties in Sunday school .
All of it was practice in functioning as a unit. To help us follow the dance . To unite wandering thoughts to a purpose.
And I did for a long time , follow the dance . I really did not realize the purpose . I just heard the music.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Rock Around The Clock
The very first time I heard a rock and roll song ( not a home made version by Mum and Dad singing and dancing) was on a Juke box in Uncle Van's Diner/Grill . Rock Around the Clock was playing for the few minutes that I was there. I was hooked. It made me want to dance. My parents were in their twenties. Rock and Roll fit their spirits . They always danced when they had a chance. It was a case of break free and enjoy the moment. Thank you Bill Haley and the Comets.
In later years , when Mum worked as a waitress in that same Diner , sold to Myrt by Uncle Van , Mum would buy used records from the 'record man' for a quarter of the cost of new records. Once every couple of weeks , hit tunes came to our house for a whirl.
Hit Parade USA 1950 - Top 10 - DanntaS
This is what my parents were listening to in the year that I was born. I recall Dad whistling many of these tunes over the next five years and Aunt Ivy adding them to her piano repetoire.
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