Zis for....Zippity Doo Dah!

What a wonderful day! I made it all the way through the alphabet and I expect that tomorrow I'll feel a little lost....untethered.... at loose ends, but today it feels GOOD!
Lisa at Laughing Orca Ranch who instigated this alphabet blog has been posting some great pictures and informative posts of her New Mexico home complete with it's fascinating array of creatures, including endangered breeds of sheep. If you love animals, you should meet Lisa's menagerie.

When I was a little girl in the forties, my Mom and I used to sing songs like Zippity Doo Dah just for fun. Her family always sang to entertain themselves on long trips.
Mom likes to tell about a trip she and her sister took with a friend and her family. As was their habit, Mom and my Aunt sang their hearts out as they drove along miles of dusty country road to their destination, a family reunion and picnic. After the long day of fun and food, and they had been packed along with their friend, into the back seat of the car, the father turned to give them a stern look..
"No singing!" he said emphatically.
The entire return trip was made in suffocating silence as two young girls digested the fact that not everybody sings everywhere they go.

Of course, I think they should, and the words of those old songs pop into my head as I'm driving or doing dishes. Before you know it, I'm singing away.
My children and grandchildren have enjoyed singing in the car,,,to a point. There's the joy of The Wheels on the Bus and B*I*N*G*O that escalates into learning a repertoire of new songs like Buffalo Gals and roundelays like Bright Coral Bells that are coincidentally, my favorites. Then come the elementary years when they teach me songs they've learned in music class inevitably followed by the Jr. High years when they firmly decline to sing at all. I can't blame it on the iPod either..that's just the way it is.

Here's Zippity Doo Dah from Disney's Song of the South.
Feel free to sing along!



Have yourself a Zippy little day!