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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Friends, All of you who are parents allow me to tell you a secret! My Dad, a newspaperman, did not forbid me to read any book wherein I could understand the words. He had so many books that my Mother threatened to leave if one more book came into the house...his deft move ?... buy another house! The first thing through the door, carried by yrs truly : a box of books! Back to the secret : Dad had both fiction and non-fiction and he lived by NEWS the ultimate non-fiction, day by day and on deadline but he did not force it on me. He started me with Sherlock Holmes so I learned a lot about Victorian London and logic. I progressed to short stories, Hugo, deMaupassant et.al. learning all the way. He explained that reading a Russian novel wasn't so hard, that it was like going to a party where everyone was a stranger to you.... keep going and gradually the important names began to stick as they became alive to you. Good writers do that, Dad said. I read Les Miserables and Madame Bovary and all the greats....the finer points of the stories escaped me (I was about 10 when I started) but they carried me along....all whacking great reads! The secret is to find interesting ficton and make it available. Fiction that has something new in it. I was in my 60s when I "discovered" Dick Francis and learned a great deal about horses and racing .... later I could impress the hell out of my niece who is a superb competition-class equestrian. Another sidelight : when I got to 8th grade the sisters talked to us about the Proscribed List and named some of the books..  ..I'd read them! I confessed to Sister. My Dad was summoned to school to meet with Sister Superior!!! OMYGAWD ! She told my father she was upset with me because I lied about the books I had read and named a few I had confessed to. "But Sister, she has read them."Dad told her! -Sister. He smoothed it all out of course, he was a tall blue-eyed Irishman who could talk a dog off a meat wagon and charm the socks off any woman even a stern Sister Superior! I also got a taste for classics from those silly Classic Comics. If you REALLY really really want your kids to read, HIDE a few books and let them overhear a remark or two about how they're too young to be allowed to read the book. I found "Gone With The Wind" in Dad's sock drawer while putting away the laundry! Learned a bit about the Civil War (War Between The States). Keep reading wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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I appreciate what both Jo and WOW say. My literary upbringing was more ad hoc that WOW's - the books were there, no rhyme or reason or direction from my parents. But when someone gave my father a copy of "Fanny Hill" - remember, it was banned all over the shop until quite recently - I was allowed to read it. There was a reference to "Justine" by de Sade in editorial at the beginning and Dad got that for me, too. Required reading at high school was a doddle - I'd read all of the books, some of them several times.
I remember the Classic comics too - weren't they great?
I envy your kids, Jo. Down here in Godzone, kids get to see what's available. The Dunedin Public Art Gallery is better than many in New Zealand, if not the best, but of course they only have what is available. My memories of my first trip to Europe as a young adult mostly consist of hungover expeditions to art galleries, cathedrals, museums, yadda-yadda.
I don't think you can teach an interest in learning, but if you show it yourself, the kids, I would hope, will follow ... eventually!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>if you show it yourself, the kids, I would hope, will follow ... eventually!
Thanks Cap - I trust you. I'm just a little impatient!
Following Wow's comments, I'm thinking of hiding "Crime and Punishment" in the sock drawer. If they don't find it, I'll consider it a crime and will look for suitable punishment!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm thinking of hiding "Crime and Punishment" in the sock drawer For this to work they should be INTERESTING books  wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
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>My Dad, a newspaperman, did not forbid me to read any book Hello, Mudda, Hello Fadda <snip> .............Lenny Bruce's Reading to us from a novel called Ulysses Seriously, I agree, Ann, that catholic reading is absolutely essential to a good "liberal" education. Not liberal in the political sense, of course. In my household both of my parents were journalists, and we too had a book or three around the house. In my high school annual from 1963, there's a picture of TEd on hall monitor duty, completely engrossed in a copy of Tropic of Cancer. Both my parents laughed uproariously. When they mentioned it to the principal I got in a wee bit of trouble on the school front, but I got out of it by lending him my copy .
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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TEd said: Hello, Mudda, Hello Fadda
Would the next line be "Here I am at Camp Granada" by any chance? Now there's a blast from the distant past!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>Here I am at Camp Granada
Camp is very entertaining!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Camp is very entertaining!
and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining!
[1963]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp)" - Allan Sherman
(parody of "Dance Of The Hours" by Amilcare Ponchielli; parody lyrics by
Allan Sherman)
transcriber unknown
available on:
original 45, Warner Brothers 5378, 1963 [out-of-print]
B-side of new 1964 version 45, Warner Brothers 5449, 1964 [out-of-print]
My Son, the Nut (Allan Sherman Sings Nutty Things, This Time with Strings),
Warner Brothers LP W/WS 1501, 1963 [out-of-print]
Dr. Demento's Delights, Warner Brothers LP BS 2855, 1975 [out-of-print]
The Best of Allan Sherman, Rhino LP/cassette 005, 1979 [LP out-of-print]
Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Vol. 3: the
1960's, Rhino LP/cassette 822, 1985 [LP out-of-print]
Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty CD of All Time, Rhino 75768, 1988
[out-of-print]
My Son, the Greatest: The Best of Allan Sherman, Rhino CD 75771, 1988
Dr. Demento - 20th Anniversary Collection, Rhino CD/cassette 70743, 1991
and numerous other comedy compilations
Hello mudduh, hello fadduh,
Here I am at Camp Granada.
Camp is very entertaining,
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining.
I went hiking with Joe Spivy.
He developed poison ivy.
You remember Leonard Skinner;
He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.
All the counselors hate the waiters,
And the lake has alligators.
And the head coach wants no sissies,
So he reads to us from something called Ulysses.
Now I don't want this should scare ya,
But my bunkmate has malaria.
You remember Jeffrey Hardy...
They're about to organize a searching party.
Take me home, oh mudduh, fadduh.
Take me home, I hate Granada.
Don't leave me out in the forest
Where I might get eaten by a bear.
Take me home, I promise I will not make noise
Or mess the house with other boys.
Oh please don't make me stay!
I've been here ONE -- WHOLE -- DAY.
Dearest fadduh, darling mudduh,
How's my precious little brudduh?
Let me come home if you miss me.
I would even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me.
Wait a minute...It's stopped hailing!
Guys are swiming, guys are sailing.
Playing baseball... gee, that's better!
Muddah, fadduh, kindly disregard this letter!
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks to Jackie for posting all of the verses of the song. I knew them all! [Right-on Emoticon]. Others on the board obviously do, too. Alan Sherman can have had no idea the effect his song would have on a ten-year-old boy in New Zealand when he released it. I first heard it as a live performance on the radio and thought it was hilarious. I asked my mum what the camp in the song was all about. I knew about Boy Scout camps and Health Camps (if you want to know about these, ask privately). She said it was something some American kids did during their summer break, and if I wanted to know more I should find out about it. So I went to the public library (a very good one even today) and learned how to use the index, asked the librarians a few questions and eventually found something (can't remember what, precisely) that explained it all. Very strange, I remember thinking. I also learned that Americans don't have their long school break during December-January, and why. This was the first time that I remember where I actively had to go and find out something that I wanted to know - rather than just ask my parents or teacher. Thanks Alan Sherman - you changed my life!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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