Grandfather's Clock

The songs we learn in childhood we often cherish as we do the events that remind us of good times and special occasions, or the people we associate with pleasant experiences.  We move on as adults and may forget them for awhile, but often they will appear when we pass a group of children, turn on a program where a familiar tune is played.  So it is with Grandfather's Clock.

The song is an old, traditional song, performed by many people, including Johnny Cash, and one I learned on a Victrola at the home of an elderly couple in La Grande, Oregon.  The couple both had white hair, so for me they represented the oldest people I knew.  They were known as loving and kind and would often give me cocoa and a piece of cake or cookies when I came to visit.  They were the parents of a step-grandfather, but the distant relationship was made a close one by the way they treated me.  One of those special moments came when they turned on the old, wind-up Victrola so I could listen to the collection of music they had, one of which was Grandfather's clock.

For me the song is identified with a walk to the home of that elderly couple, especially in the warm days of summer in a small town where everyone knew everyone else.  It is associated with those cookies and a simple life.

Let me share those moments with you by way of this special song, that some of you may know, and some may not.  But if it offers good memories or good moments than it has served its purpose now for both you and me, as this song is presented in its traditional, yet modernized way.