My Dad's Long Drive in the Country Car Songs

My Mom and Dad loved to take long car trips. We all sang on long car drives. Sometimes we had a radio and sometimes we did not. We sang these songs anyway. Con brio.

We always stopped at an ice cream stand that looked like an ice cream cone. Roadside attractions in the 50s tended to look like what they were selling.

We would drive down the Delaware River sometimes. At the end of one bridge you could get charcoal broiled hot dogs and real root beer from the window of an old frame house that edged the road. 

Everytime I hear one of these songs, I am transported to happy. Love you, Dad. Miss you every day.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE ~ Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers (1945) (live recording). Words by: Johnny Mercer - Music by: Harold Arlen - copyright: 1944

Minnie the Moocher is a jazz song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over a million copies,

St. James Infirmary Blues, sometimes known as Gambler's Blues, is an American folksong of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills). Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.

Louis Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an Italian-American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the late 1920s, then leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s, and a pop-rock band in the 1960s.

Java Sweet and Hot

Coffee is good and good for you. Hallelujah! I am celebrating with a cup of Poor Richard's blend coffee from Reading Terminal Market. Life is good.

I was so happy to read this article. How much do we love coffee? We love coffee so much that we write songs about coffee. Coffee songs below.

Good to know that our love for that first cup in the morning is not in vain. And that drinking another two or three cups may have health benefits.

The illustration is a vintage tin sign. You can find more signs of this type HERE.

Why Coffee Is Good for You
Kris Gunnars, Authority Nutrition

It is more than just dark-colored liquid with caffeine. Coffee actually contains hundreds of different compounds, some of which have important health benefits.

Several massive studies have now shown that the people who drink the most coffee live longer and have a reduced risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Read more ..

Rain Gardens with Music

Spring is here. I am ordering Herb Seeds and plotting Flowers. I am planting Milkweed for the Monarch Butterflies this year. I am getting that Happy Green Feeling in spite of the cold outside.

I have learned you can make that boggy place in your yard a thing of beauty and help clean and conserve water by planting a Rain Garden. 

Once planted, such a garden is maintained with little to no effort. And that is good news. Gardening can be hard work.

The woman in the photograph below is teaching a class in Rain Gardens and you can see the perfect sort of location. Find out all the particulars at this link.

"To select a location for a rain garden, begin by observing your yard during a good rainfall. Notice where water is flowing. Rain gardens should ideally be located between the source of runoff (roofs and driveways) and the runoff destination (drains, streams, low spots, etc.)."

The photograph on the right is a rain garden in Philadelphia, designed by Edgar David.

"Rainwater that flows from the house roof to the stone cistern is used to irrigate an intimate collection of woodland plants."

The Philadelphia Water Department has some excellent information about making Rain Gardens. The PWD also has a rain barrel program for those of us who do not have a boggy spot and still want to utilize and help manage rain water runoff. And now it is time for a Spring song by The Velvet Fog.

Philadelphia Opera Company - Musical Interlude for Attitude Adjustment

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - Albert Schweitzer

I shop at Reading Terminal Market weekly for fresh ground coffee and real bread. Iovine's for fresh produce. The Amish butcher for breakfast sausage and honey. Then I eat lunch at Pearl's Oyster Bar. Music and good food is Paradise.

I love the City of Brotherly Love. You never know when a random act of culture by the Philadelphia Opera Company may appear.