Songs like this were popular when I was young.
Looking out of the window today gives some idea of how imaginative songwriters could write five lines of lies after a reasonably truthful opening.
The song, revised in later years by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and countless others, was written in 1929, the year of another great event which offered an indication of what to do on a rainy miserable-looking Saturday afternoon in mid February. We have falling-apart albums of old photographs that would be much more accessible to my descendants if 'modernised' for computer display.
And so this was the other 1929 event that sparked 'the project'. The earliest known image of someone who grew up to be less like a scruffy looking eskimo than the one who captivated the heart of the apparent exhibitionist from 1926 who was merely asking: "where are my clothes?"
also famous for the truthful origin of the words used in later years as an untruth:"sorry, he's tied up at the moment".
(Click and enlarge to see the rope tied to him and the window to prevent his escape.)
Of course, they grew up so that well intended people could take other pictures for the ultimate embarrassment of descendants researching their family histories: she's on the right here, while in this picture entitled "the boy with the lead balloon" he looks hardly a catch for anyone!
It's not their car either!
The joy of 'the project' is the ability to exclude sights better left uncovered and to include those heroic pictures of "For King and Country":
But all this happened a long time ago, even before this:
and that was a long time ago too!
It's stopped raining and the sun is shining. Although the lines of the song are still filled with hopes rather than truths, there is optimism that springtime is not far off. The song may yet prove to be a hit.
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