Day 3

[bironic]

What's this?

3. Preschool/Kindergarten/Elementary School

I don't remember what year it was, exactly, but it was one of the years I went to summer camp (the one at which we decorated the cake). There was a room in one part of the camp that we used for music sessions. It was grayish beige, I think, so probably smooth cement, although there must have been things hanging from the wall, and maybe a tiny stage in front, and the door was on the right side in the front; I remember that as a wide open rectangle, but there had to have been a door attached for rainy days.

I remember two days in that room, or maybe two songs in the same session. One was the omnipresent '80s song, Hands Up, and we were following the leader's motions as the song played over the speakers or on the tape deck: our hands waving in the air, once for each "hands up" of the chorus, then clasping together to bounce over our hearts and reaching out to the left and right as if to another person for "gimme your heart, gimme gimme your heart, gimme gimme." The other song was Harry Chapin's Cat's in the Cradle, which I do still love today. We must have had choreography for that one, too, but I don't remember.

Wow. Just listening to those songs on YouTube throws me right back there and then.
 

Comments

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

"Hands Up" takes me to Mallorca. We went there every year from when I was 6 to when I was 16, same resort, same hotel, usually the same room (yes, the one with the glass and the tiles...) because they had children's clubs for me. There was also 'entertainment' in the evenings, which was sometimes brilliant and sometimes rubbish. But there was always much dancing, to all the cheesy 80's music that had actions. Whenever I think of people dancing to stuff like that, they're always outside at night, on the patio of the hotel, with the sea in the distance behind them, close enough that I can smell the salt and the heat of the day.

We had to move hotels when they rebuilt 'ours', but we just went down the road, and carried on visiting every year until I got married. The other half and I are planning to take holidays in Menorca from now on, because we fell in love with it last year, and because it reminds me of the Mallorca of my childhood, the memories of which are happy and contented, so that I get lovely warm feeling just thinking about going.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lovely tradition, and a nice little twist on the tradition for your new family.

Our family took vacations when we were kids, but we usually didn't go to the same place twice -- no summer cabins or campgrounds or favorite hotels or anything.

"Hands Up" definitely reminds me of camp, but most other '80s & '90s dance hits like "YMCA" send me back to after-parties at bar/bat mitzvahs, sweet sixteens and school dances. Ick. *g*

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

I was in a gimp-preschool (preschool/therapy combo pack) which they threw me out of for being too smart and hogging all the questions from the other children. :-) I also couldn't walk unassisted until I was five, and because I was less trouble than some of the other children, I occasionally got lost in the shuffle when they were dealing with crises. During one of these times, I pushed a chair up to the water play table, climbed on top of it, then climbed into the water play table with all of my clothes on. My mother has pictures - and the director of the preschool kept one in her office until she retired. :-)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee!

What was in the water play table? (It makes me think of those hands-on displays at aquariums where you can play with starfish and sea sponges and things, but I'm sure that's not what you had in a classroom with young children.)

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Oh, just bath toys: cups, small pitchers, boats, floaty animals, that kind of stuff. I want to say there might have been a little water wheel, but I could be wrong about that.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. :)

I have this weird little almost-memory of something similar in some classroom sometime that is trying to surface since you've brought this up.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

It's a very common feature in a lot of kid-school-classrooms: water play tables, sand play tables ... a friend mentioned how the school she taught at used dried coffee grounds ... my son's school mixes it up - sometimes it's corn or rice or dried beans.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking I've told this story before, but I scanned last year's entries and I didn't see it. So apologies if I'm repeating myself from elsewhere :)

Singing was a big part of my primary school (K-4). We sang every day in class, and at assemblies (I suppose that was our music programme, since we didn't learn instruments). When I was in Grade 4, someone came up with the idea to make a record. Each class had their own song, and there were school-wide songs (the ones I remember for sure are "Two Little Boys," "Teddy Bear's Picnic," "Ugly Duckling"). We did recording sessions in the gym over what seemed like weeks and at the end we had an actual record - I still have my copy somewhere.

My class's song was "Mountain Dew." I'm not sure why they thought it was appropriate for nine-year-olds to sing about bootlegging, but we loved it! We'd finish each chorus by shouting "Ya-hoo!" as loudly as we could (which I'm sure was delightful for the other teachers), and we were convinced that we shouted so loudly that we'd made cracks in the ceiling.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard that story before. Cute!

raaaaaaaandom!

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure why they thought it was appropriate for nine-year-olds to sing about bootlegging..."

Singing about bootlegging is never wrong!

I was watching a program on The History Channel the other day and it featured an elderly moonshiner by the unlikely name of Popcorn Sutton. He said things like, "I tell people, if they wanna know about the liquor laws, just ask me. Simply because ... if there is one ... I broke it" and he danced a lively little jig at one point even though he was about a million years old. I kind of want to roleplay him. He'd make a great character.

Re: raaaaaaaandom!

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

I dated a guy in university whose grandfather had been a rum-runner to the States during Prohibition. I can't remember why it came up in English class, but everyone was very impressed, even the professor...

Re: raaaaaaaandom!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Everything I know about running liquor across the US-Canada border during prohibition, I learned from reading Middlesex.

Just thought I'd toss that in. :)

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

1. Wow, we did that! I have no idea what possessed the school to think making a record was a good idea. I still have it somewhere, too - at least, I hope so. Our class sang "The Sun is a Very Happy Fellow", and one girl was picked to do a solo during it. I still remember the teacher gesturing us to complete silence for the few seconds before and after the actual recording.

I used to listen to it a lot at home - one of my favourites was "Little White Bull", which is kind of like a bovine version of The Ugly Duckling XD

2. Cat's in the Cradle makes me sniffle. This was summer camp as in you actually stayed overnight, did you? My only experience of summer camp comes from American media :)

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

On our record, at the end of the last song, one of kindergarten kids can be heard saying, "I'm glad that's over." Very cute. He grew up to be a musician (and ski bum, not an unusual combination in Vancouver).

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hee! Perfect ending :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It was a day camp, so we shipped out in the morning on mini school buses and came home by dinnertime, 5 days a week, for the session. I think they split the summer into two sessions, and you could go to one or the other or both.

Never went to sleep-away camp, actually. Closest I came was a couple of overnight or weekend camping trips when I was a little older, as part of an "enrichment" environmental science camp -- we put up our own tents on a campground/beach out on eastern Long Island. Lots of mosquitoes and mud, but otherwise fun.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

Funny, not all that long ago some old summer camp songs popped into my head and I posted lyrics for my flist. My favorites were always the ones with a bit of a gross-out factor. I remember dreading singalong time because the camp I went to was completely overrun with girls who thought we should sing Kumbaya or whatever ALL NIGHT LONG as a FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO PART ROUND. Dude, all I really wanted to sing about was gopher guts and swallowing worms with your soda. Screw that "Make new friends but keep the old" crap. XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

gopher guts

OMG! Had no recollection of that song until just now!

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

Nobody loved that song like me. After the "and I forgot my spoon" line, I always belted out, "BUT I GOT MY FOOOOOOOOOOOORK!" All by myself. Because nobody else thought it was as funny as I did. ALAS.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

More gopher guts for you, anyway. Why is it running through my head to the tune of "Yellow Submarine"?

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I suspect because both songs consist of approximately three notes and have the same sort of pace. XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I am still trying to remember -- it's more like the tune of "Here we sit, just birds in the wilderness," right?

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I don't know that one! :o But I just googled it and ... I would guess "yes" because of the structure of the lyrics.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*hums it helpfully*

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

XD Yeah, I was just thinking maybe later I'll try to find my microphone so I can sing about gopher guts for you. Right now, though, I need a short nap. The universe conspired against me a bit this afternoon and my brain needs to be put on autopilot for a little while.

[recrudescence.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear "Cat's in the Cradle" till my freshman year of college. Wow. Does it make me really dippy to admit I think it's a really sad song?

I was in pre-school from ages two and a half to four, and somewhere in there I remember I won an award for being the best spaghetti-twirler. I actually remember quite a bit from those years, now that I think about it. And I used to draw pictures (fanart?) of the kids in my class in all these different scenarios, like having parties in the jungle or something. This kept on through elementary school. Always a geek. =)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*g* I am as impressed by your school having an award for best spaghetti-twirler as I am that you won it.

It is a very sad song, though, isn't it? It's about not taking advantage of the time we have with our parents and/or children. I mean, it's a message to take advantage of it, so in that sense it's hopeful, but the story it's telling is much sadder.

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

HM. . . Which story to tell. . .

In Elementary school in Washington, Singing was a part of daily life. You sang about the classes, you sang about cultures, you sang about church camp, you sang along to the radio. At home, we listened to the Christian channel Or to CDs- Amy Grant and Stevie Nicks were favorites.

We had a good number of families in the little town I lived in who were Hispanic. As in Parents/Grandparents had been illegal workers who fled North and then had kids on US soil to stick around- 20 miles from the Canadian border. Yeah. My Best friend was named Mallory Garcia, and our mutual crush was (a completely unrelated) Ignacio Garcia who had long hair and was our age. I think this was third grade?

IN any case, I remember a couple of things that combine the two. We learned Senor Don Gato (was a cat) (http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Senor_Don_Gato.htm) first, along side the classic And the Cat Came Back (http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/c020.html), and both were favorites though Don Gato was sung more often as half the class knew it in Spanish as well. Also PArents were less likely to object.

We also Sang Silent Night with the second verse in Spanish (http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishchristmascarols/a/noche_de_paz.htm) for our X-mas celebration. IT was amusing because we had a boy named Jesus in our class who would turn bright red every time we sang it.

(more extensive Cat Came Back Lyrics are here (http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Cat_Came_Back.htm))

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I know you said you didn't have a TV for a while, but did you ever see the Nickelodeon cartoon for "The Cat Came Back"? It was a short little thing, not a show or anything, but it was ADORABLE.

IT was amusing because we had a boy named Jesus in our class who would turn bright red every time we sang it.

Aww!