Shortly before going to bed last night, I learned that my older sister, Jay, suffered a stroke the night before and is not expected to recover. She’s currently in hospice. Jay, originally Jeannie, was, as our mother would say, the second one of the first batch. The first batch, of which I’m the third, hailed from South Dakota. The second batch came from Arizona. Janice, the eldest, passed away during Covid but not of Covid.

I went to bed but not to sleep with the realization that, with my parents gone now, too, I’m losing all the people from my early childhood. I went to bed, but not to sleep. I tossed and turned thinking of all the things we shared as well as the things we didn’t. Many of those memories were music related, because our childhood home really was filled with music. When The Sound of Music came out, it made perfect sense to me because, having all those kids marching around singing together was like going back home.

We weren’t anything like the Von Trapp Family Singers, but we did sing together–while doing the dishes or yard work and also when it came time for our weekly Saturday morning round of house cleaning.

In the shoemaker’s shop
This refrain would never stop
As he tapped away
Working all the day

At his bench there was he
Just as busy as a bee
Little time to lose
With the boots and shoes

“Shoes to set my feet a-dancing, dancing
Dancing, dancing all the day
Shoes to set my feet a-dancing, dancing
Dancing all my cares away.”

Bisbee, Arizona, was a company town. Every July, the mines shut down for two weeks and everyone who worked for Phelps Dodge went on vacation. Our father didn’t work for PD, so we stayed home. During Shut Down, Janice and Jeannie often made extra spending money by watering people’s yards. One day they let me tag along, and while they were watering we sang:

There’s a lonely little robin
In the tree by my door,
And he waits for his mate
Who returns never more.
So remember, please remember,
That I’m lonely, too.
Like the lonely little robin
I’m waiting for you.

They had me sing the melody while they harmonized around that. It was my first experience in singing three-part harmony and it’s why I ended up in Girls’ Trio in high school.

We sang while we were taking car trips. Sometimes we sang the story songs our mother taught us:

Oh they cut down the old pine tree
And they hauled it away to the mill
To make a coffin of pine
For that sweetheart of mine,
They cut down the old pine tree.
But she’s not alone
In her grave tonight
Tis there my heart will ever be
Though we drifted apart
Still they cut down my heart
When they cut down the old pine tree.

Some of the songs were just for fun:

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a lecture
On horses and cattle and chickens and eggs
And told her that she had such beautiful manners
That suited a girl of her charms
A girl that he wanted to take in his
Washing and ironing and then if she did
They could get married and raise lots of

Sweet violets, sweeter than the roses.
Covered all over from head to toe,
Covered all over with sweet violets.

There are two more verses, but I think you get the picture.

And then there were songs which, when sung in harmony, were strictly comfort food:

Soft as the voice of an angel
Breathing a lesson unheard.
Hope with her gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting words.

Wait ’til the darkness is over,
Wait ’till the tempest is done
Hope for the sunshine tomorrow
After the showers are gone.

Then when the night is upon us,
Why should our hearts sink away?
After the darkness of midnight,
Watch for the breaking of day.

Whispering hope, oh how welcome thy voice.
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

It was almost four o’clock in the morning when I finally remembered that one, and that’s when I finally fell asleep. Whispering hope indeed!