It really is amazing the type of random stuff we remember from our childhoods. There are all kinds of seemingly important details that I probably wouldn't be able to tell you about my early life. I most likely don't remember the names I gave to some of my favourite toys, or even the names of some of my friends and teachers. I most likely couldn't pick many of them out of a lineup. Many people forget the silly, easy little grammar rules they learn (such as their, they're, there and your vs. you're). But, I remember this song about a street fair.
When I was a little kid, my parents were really good about making sure that I listened to lots of children's music. We did listen to pop and rock on the radio in the car, but I also had quite a bunch of tapes full of children's songs. Yes... tapes. Remember tapes? We even still had a record player when I was a kid, and not in an "ironic" or retro kind of a way. There were actually old records because records were what was there. I didn't get my first CD until I was about eleven years old, and it was Leeann Rimes. I remember it clear as day. Anyway, one of my favourite of these children's singers was Tom Chapin. He is the brother of Harry Chapin, and writes and records predominantly silly, fun songs for kids. In addition to being pretty hilarious on tape, he also did a yearly free (or extremely cheap, this I don't remember) concert on the grounds of a museum near our house, where he would perform with his band. We went every year, and it was a very good time.
I can remember every word to almost every song on every single one of his tapes. I'm not lying. I just went through about six of them in my head as I was writing the last two paragraphs, and I'm rather certain that I recalled them in their entirety. My neighbors are probably wondering why I'm singing kid's songs at 11pm at night on a Saturday, but whatever, I'm not really concerned. This is New York- if they think that's weird, they've chosen to live in the wrong city. So, yes. I remember most of these songs, completely. And, as songs do, they pop into my head when I see things that remind me of them. For example, every time I make pancakes, or it is Mother's Day, I am reminded of the song "Mother's Day," in which the children and clueless father make the mother buckwheat, chocolate chip, apple raisin pancakes in which they've used baking soda instead of baking powder, as breakfast in bed. See, I told you that I knew the lyrics. When I see a lemonade stand, I think of his lemonade song, where the lemonade is fifty cents, not from concentrate, fresh-squeezed, straight from trees, and really, really great. Lemonade totally is never only fifty cents here... or not from concentrate... but I still get reminded of it.
The worst one, however, is "Street Fair," from the album "In my Hometown." Because, well, in New York City, there are an asinine number of street fairs. It is excellent- I love street fairs. It's just that every time I see one, I think of the Tom Chapin song. Then, it's stuck in my head for the entire day, like it has been today. Ah, well. I'll just have to share some of it with you, along with some photographs of the fair, which I encountered just north of Washington Square Park today.
"Street fair, street fair
Unique and antique this stupendous affair
Everyone in the whole town will be there
We'll eat and we'll eat as we walk down the street
And we'll eat in the street at the fair"
Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
