Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas tears...

When I was growing up there were three stories guaranteed to make me cry. Two I only ever heard on the radio. One was Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince about the little swallow and the statue, narrated by Bing Crosby. The second was the Christmas story called The Small One about a little boy and his donkey, also narrated by Bing Crosby. The third story was Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose, which I mostly read in print form. In each case I think the tears signalled an empathy with marginalised characters and animals/birds. The recordings, of course, were designed to trigger tears (cue mood music, fruity voice...) and Paul Gallico has been criticised for his sentimentality. Yet, despite my adult self objectively 'knowing' this, early on Christmas morning, I unexpectedly caught a recording of The Small One on National Radio and I sat there in bed with my cup of tea, sobbing my heart out...

7 comments:

  1. Oooooohhhhhhhhh! I have the very same memory! We must have had the same record as children. I can still hear Bing Crosby's voice in my head, "Swallow, Little Swallow . . . " And my mother memorized The Small One to tell it one year at church and on Christmas Eve to our family. It would have been a two-hanky radio program for me too---made better, I'm sure, by its being unexpected. I don't think we knew The Snow Goose, but will look it up! Thanks for this lovely nostalgic moment.

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  2. How lovely that you have the same memory!!! Yes, "Swallow, Little Swallow..." - I can hear the cadence. I think you would like The Snow Goose. Actually I've just realised that the other thing these 3 stories have in common is extreme loyalty - which is also love...

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  3. As a youngster I used to get up early on Sunday morning and sit on the old Conray heater and listen to the stories on the radio. The Pokey Little Puppy .. and Diana and the Golden Balls (or summit) :) and Sparky the talking train .. Its all clever how they make you see in your mind and take you away on their adventures. Nice thoughts thanks :-)>

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  4. I hope the heater wasn't going!!! I remember Diana and the Golden Apples?? and Sparky and Flick the little Fire engine and one about a little tugboat and ... and ... The stories today are much more bi/multi cultural and grounded in a NZ context which is great. But there is nostalgia for what we knew as children...

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  5. aww Little Toot... I didn't like "Help me Sparky, help me Sparky" :o)

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  6. I know - that funny voice as though it was in an echoing tunnel...

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  7. right front wheel .. right front wheel .. Yes the heater was on .. steel box type with stainless large mesh on the front and about 3 settings on a dial on the top .. used to sort of fight to sit on it and burn our legs from the lovely heat. And of course it was apples :)

    Aye .. nostelgia .. nothing is the same as it was .. even when it is it is still different because of our perspective. :o)>

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