I’m getting up at that age (29, did I mention?) where I sometimes have trouble remembering things. Usually it’s a name, or a title or what film someone was in. I’m not as unbeatable at Trivial Pursuit as I used to be in the good old days when my brother made me answer 3 questions instead of 1 every time I landed on brown.* I have to struggle to dredge up facts and information from the crevasses of my brain which seem to be filling up with sand and Swedish and advertisement dimensions and deadlines.
Most of the time I’ve found that if I just relax and go do something else, the answer will come to me. Sometimes an hour later, sometimes a day. It’s certainly aggravating, but I suspect it will just get worse on the next birthday and the next and the next each time I turn 29.
Tonight was the start of our spring choir term and I ended up sitting next to my buddy brief_therapy who had to listen to me sing off-key and swear when I did it (“Liz, there’s no ‘shit’ in the chorus”) and endure my bouncing in my chair and making faces and laughing at inappropriate moments and at one point even throwing wadded up paper balls at her, just like an unruly 3rd-grader with ADHD. I should probably have stayed home, given the mood I was in, but I didn’t want to miss the first practice and the new songs we were sure to be singing and sure enough, we were.
The song we started practicing tonight is titled Donna, Donna and while most of the Swedes were singing along with the first play-through, neither Geena nor I had ever heard it or heard of it. After googling it tonight, I found out that Joan Baez made it famous and Donovan Leitch sang it as well. (you can listen to the melody here if you’re so inclined)
One phrase in the song —the whole day through— suddenly popped out at me and stuck in my head. I knew that phrase from some OTHER song! But what was it? *thinkthinkthink* I could NOT get it to come to the surface. I leaned over and whispered to Geena, asking if she knew. Nope. Argh, it was driving me crazy! I spent the break singing the phrase to myself over and over under my breath, trying to get it out in the light where I could see what it was, but it refused to even make eye contact. “The whole day through, the whole day through,” I sang quietly to myself, while the sopranos were going over their part. But I couldn’t concentrate while others were singing or when WE were.
We went through another song after the break and finally wrapped up at 9:30. I walked down the stairs singing the phrase in various melodies over and over again, still trying to catch the wiggling tail of that sneaky memory, and out the door into the cold, clear air. The sky was pure black with tiny pinpoint lightbright stars scattered across it and the moon dangling like a sharp little silver hammock over my head. I pulled my scarf up around my ears and buttoned the topmost button on my coat. Hoooooo, I breathed out smoky dragon breath into the winter air. Hoooo!
And then! I remembered! It came in a booming flash of memory! And I sang it all the way home.
A horse and a flea and three blind mice
Sat on a curbstone shooting dice
The horse he slipped and fell on the flea
“Whoops,” said the flea, “There’s a horse on me!”
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Giddy and foolish the whole day through
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Way down South where bananas grow
A flea stepped on an elephant’s toe
The elephant cried, with tears in his eyes
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Giddy and foolish the whole day through
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Way up North where there’s ice and snow
There lived a penguin and his name was Joe
He got so tired of black and white
He wore pink slacks to the dance last night!
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Giddy and foolish the whole day through
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Called myself on the telephone
Just to hear that golden tone
Asked myself out for a date
Said be ready ’bout half-past eight!
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Giddy and foolish the whole day through
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Took myself to the picture show
Sat myself on the very last row
Wrapped my arms around my waist
Got so fresh I slapped my face!
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Giddy and foolish the whole day through
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
*Arts & Literature