Wisdom (?) of my father!

[DALederle]

Here on Thanksgiving Day I heard some Christmas music being played while watching the parades. Two of the songs that caught my attention was Jingle Bell Rock and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. Both made me think of my father and all the "pearls" of wisdom he used to drop on me once in a while. I'm sure most of us have had a parent or other relative that would say things they thought very profound. We could all, probably, write books about those "pearls" if we could remember them all.
But those two songs really resonate with me.
Because my dad once said, in all seriousness, "Son, don't put too much stock in rock-n-roll, because it won't last. It's just tribal music and people will get tired of it and want to listen to real music once again."
When he heard Jingle Bell Rock first played on the radio (and yes I'm old enough to have heard it for the first time it was played) he gave a snort of disgust and said, "That's not real Christmas music! It's not like White Christmas."
Nothing I could say to him would explain that it wasn't written to replace White Christmas. Both songs stand alone on their own merits. But, OMG, how wrong he was.
He also told me, seriously, that religion was invented by women to give them something to do, instead of just sitting around the house.
Okay, stop laughing now!
He did get some things right.
Like, "Son, never volunteer. Especially when the D.I. comes into the barracks and asks for volunteers."
He also taught me how to draw and paint and cut meat. He was a butcher at one time in his life and years ago I surprised my friends by butchering a deer for them. In exchange for the steaks I wanted.
He knew a lot of things I sometimes wish I had learned from him. But mixed it all up with the OTHER things, maybe half-truths, or just plain mistakes, that he believed.
So as the holiday season comes up on us this year and all the other years since his death, it reminds me of my dad. It reminds with fondness and amusement over the man I called dad.
Does anyone else have this kind of memories?

Dennis A. Lederle
Happy THanksgiving!

[DALederle]

P.S.

My dad's version of "real" music was Benny Goodman and the big bands of the 1940s. I grew up listening to almost nothing but these sounds until rock came along in the 1950s. I like both sounds, each for their own merit. Though my rock music tends to be the early days of rock. Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Jerry lee, etc. etc. So I'm as stuck in my own concepts as my dad was. Only a very few of the sounds of rock since the early 1960s appeal to me.
We all have our limits!
SLOL!
(Still Laughing Out Loud)

Dennis A. Lederle

[Since1982]

I love these guys that spend a lot of their time talking to themselves. They ask a question, and then, lo and behold, they answer it. Amazing.

[Kirbstone]

My parents' taste in music was simple...ballroom dance music. They left behind a formidable collection of shellac 78 rpm records with tangos, quick steps, waltzes & fox trots &c, all played by dance bands of the inter-war years, British and American. We had a Pye 'Radiogram' at home which had a ten-stacker autochange for 78's.
I was introduced to Classical music played on 33rpm LP's by our Dean of Studies at School in his Music Appreciation classes. I was then doing serious grades on piano as well. Stereo came along at about that time.
In Colege I was introduced to Jazz by fellow students, and up to that time the 'top twenty' was compiled from the sale of sheet music!!... It was way before the advent of the 45rpm pop single, which of course rapidly filled every juke box on the Planet within the space of a few years.

My Dad used to say 'Lord protect me from bawling Tenors', who in his time had names like Caruso and Mario Lanza. I echo his sentiment, as our National Classical channel 'Lyric FM' seems at times to be owned by one (the late) Luciano Pavarotti. A great singer, of course, but not easy listening for me.