Sunday, Oct. 24

Slept late this morning, until nearly 8:30. By the time I completed my usual Sunday morning routine, including a session on the treadmill and resistance exercises, it was nearly noon. Mother had come over and put lasagna in the oven for our lunch.

I waited until after lunch to shower and get ready for the day. This afternoon, around 2 p.m., Mother and I went to the museum for a program on the history of music from the Civil War to WWII.

We were surprised when we arrived to find that no one was there. We stepped into the foyer and read on the bulletin board that the program was not until 4 p.m. Seems Hubbie had seen a blurb in the newspaper about the program and told me it was 2 p.m., which I dutifully recorded on the calendar.

Oh well, Mother and and I decided to kill an hour or so in town until time to return to the museum. We went first to the everything's a dollar store, where I found ribbons I needed for making gift packs.

Then we went to the other dollar store, where I found headphones for my cassette player. The foam had deteriorated and come off of my old headphones, and they were uncomfortable.

Finally, we went to a fast food restaurant to get soft serve ice cream. When we ordered two medium cups of it, the young man at the counter leaned over and said that if I bought two coupon books for $1 each, which have five coupons each for junior size cups of ice cream, I could use three coupons per book to buy medium cups of ice cream and save a dollar, and still have coupons left to buy four junior cups of ice cream. It was a good deal, so I was glad for the offer.

By the time we finished our ice cream, we were ready to go to the museum. We got there in time to park in a handicapped space near the front door of the museum.

About 50 people crowded into the small room of the museum...obviously many more than expected, because museum staff had to scurry to the closet to drag out more chairs.

The program, presented by four women that we are personally acquainted with, was very interesting. Mother thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the ladies is a collector/historian, who brought along a large number of sheet music samples. As she talked about the various war eras...the Civil War, World War I, and World War II, she showed the sheet music she had collected from those times. She noted that early rag paper sheet music preserved well, while later sheet music, made from wood pulp, became more fragile.

One song from the sheet music she showed was titled, Madelon, "I'll be True to the Whole Regiment," (1918). This provoked laughter, since we weren't sure what the song expressed. Lyrics online tell the story of a young woman in France, a tavern owner's daughter. She flirts with the soldiers, who all vie for her affections. But she refuses them, saying she must be true to the whole regiment. Her heart is eventually won by a young Brittany man, at the end of the war.

Three other women participated in the program...two of whom sang, while the third played keyboard accompaniment. The audience was prevailed upon to sing along to a couple of the songs...the Civil War tunes "Dixie," from the South, and "Battle Hymn of the Republic," from the North.

But the ladies also sang several songs on their own, some serious ones, some about longing for loved ones, and some humorous ones, like "Paper of Pins," "A Ring on the Finger is Worth Two on the Phone," and "Sweet Violets."

"Sweet Violets," for instance is a novelty tune, written in 1882 by O. Williams of Amherst Point, Nova Scotia. The listener thinks a rhyming word will follow the first line of each couplet..."kiss" to rhyme with "miss," for instance. But the couplets take surprising and humorous turns instead.

"There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of a barn, where he gave her a.....
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs
And told her she had such beautiful....
Manners that suited a girl of her charms
A girl he wanted to take in his...
Washing and ironing and then if she did
They would get married and raise lots of...
Sweet violets, sweeter than all of the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets."

Another novelty tune, "Paper of Pins," is about a guy offering gifts to get a girl to marry him:

"I'll give you a paper of pins,
And that's the way my love begins,
If you will marry me, me, me,
If you will marry me".

He offers lots of gifts, including his heart, that she refuses. Then he offers all his wealth:

"I'll give to you the key to my chest,
That you may have gold at your request,
If you will marry me, me, me
If you will marry me."

This is a gift too tempting to refuse, so she accepts. But now the table is turned, and the young man says:

"Oh, you love coffee and you love tea,
You love my gold, but you don't love me,
I'll not marry you, you, you,
I'll not marry you."

After the performance, refreshments of fruitcake squares and brownies, with coffee, was served. We were back home about 5 p.m.

Hubbie opted out of going to the museum, in favor of bathing Shih Tzu, vacuuming the den and living room, and doing other household chores, in anticipation of his daughter's possible visit tomorrow.

We spent the rest of the evening watching TV, as usual.

It has been a rainy, and in some places around the state, a stormy day. But though clouds came and went, and a wind kicked up, no rain fell here. We don't want storms, but the earth is parched, and the leaves on the trees are curling and crisp. The yard is deep in brown leaves that crunch underfoot when we walk on them. We desperately need a few days of slow, soaking rain.