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Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
p 56 #1091
RED HEADED STEPCHILD
Part I
Sophie Meranski Barrett early years 1901-1930
Chapter SIX
MUSICAL INERESTS OF JACK + SOPHIE BARRETT
Musical Interests of Jack & Sophie Barrett,first part After the death of his mother June l889 John Berchmans Barrett lived on Park and Baxter Streets in Melrose until 1894,when his father remarried and returned to South Boston.Maternal Buckley aunts and grandparents lived next door- grandparents Dan Buckley and Mary Ann O Farrell were emigrants from Moskeigh and Kilbarry Templemartin parish Cork about 1851.It was probably at this time Jack learned Alfred Tennyson's lullaby "Sweet and Low" and another "Sleep,baby sleep Thy father watches the sheep The stars look do..wn on thee-sleep, baby sleep"; grandmother had a piano,and she apparently intended Jack to inherit it, but the will inadvertently named "John Berchmans Buckley" and the piano went to a first cousinJohn Buckley -l896 although his middle name was not Berchmans.While living at 634 East SeventhStreet between L and M Streets in South Boston in the late l890's, Jack Barrett was a member of the choir at Gate of Heaven church near I and East Fourth Streets, until his friend Joe Buckley not a relative,but a neighbor at M and Eighth streets was caught with a water pistol that belonged to Jack,and they both were expelled from the choir. Jack took piano lessons at a time when some instructors favored a stiff wrist, and recollects practicing with a quarter coin balanced on each wrist.At Boston Latin School l902-l906 he learned "Adeste fideles" and "Gloria in excelsis deo"- Christmas carols.Prior to his marriage Jack dated several serious students of piano and voice including Lucile Nelson from Charleston,South Carolina, who studied in Paris with Madame Calve and toured in cast of Sigmund Romberg's "Blossom Time" a fictionalized treatment of Franz Schubert's life.In Hawaii l927Jack purchased a small ukulele.While demobilized temporarily from the Navy after World War I Jack went round the world as an officer of the commercial ship WESTERNER and in London he saw ballerina Pavlova in her best-known role as the swan in Camille Saint-Saens "Le Cygne."Jack was amused by the name of the musician Ossip Gabrilowitch,son-in-law of Mark Twain and he often played Jan Paderewski's "Minuet a l'Antique", '"Le Secret" of Gautier,"Andante Cantabile" from Tchaikowsky string quartet, Mendelssohn's "Consolation" and selections of Chaminade,Chopin Liszt,Grieg,Macdowell, Thomas,Delibes,Thome, Massanet,Schumann.He had a great enthusiasm for violinist Fritz Kreisler and must have heard him perform, possibly in WashingtonDC l9l3-l9l8 or New York l920's.He knew "The Old Refrain and "Caprice Viennois"and in the l950's we obtained Kreisler's performance of Beethoven's violin concerto in D with Sir John Barbirolli conducting, and Liebesfreud and Liebeslied recordings and Kreisler's performances of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home" and Ethelbert Nevin's "Rosary."In later years Jack often practiced the four pieces of Ethelbert Nevin's Giorno in Venezia"-Day in Venice with its subtlies of ornamentation and rubato.When I was learning to talk l937-8 in Philadelphia,Jack used to sing (author unknown?) "She was just a sailor's sweetheart But she loved her sailor lad -Though he left her broken-hearted -He was all she ever had. But she still believes in sailors; and she's true- to the Red, White, and Blue, And although she's barred from the navy yard, She loves her sailor boy, positively."He also knew 'the Old Oaken bucket","You take the High road and I'll take the low road (Loch Lomond), and "Barnacle Bill the sailor." In his last years l967-l969 Jack and I (John junior) TOOK JOINT PIANO LESSONS WITH GIUSEPPE DELELLIS OF NEWTON, WHO HAD GIVEN ME PIANO LESSONS 1947-1951 AND WAS A GRAD OF LONGY SCHOOL AND NADIA BOULANGER.GIUSEPPE TAUGHT AT roxbury Latin and Beaver School and Dean Junior College.Rossini was a special enthusiasm of his along with Mozart,Chopin,Schubert,and Rachmininoff.. We made a number of tapes,but the technology changed, and I have been unable to find equipment to see if anything is left playable on the tapes.Onr of Jack's l906 Boston Latin classmates Edward P. Illingworth became an organist after studying with Ferrucio Busoni. He moved about l9l7 from South Boston to 64 Hastings Street, West Roxbury, and his daughter Geraldine was an pianist.SOPHIE MERANSKI BARRETT l90l-l987 Her mother Tolley Goldfeld came fromBrody,Galicia a town with strong musical traditions,but there is no evidence of direct influence.Around l90l the Meranskis were neighbors of Sophie Tucker's father on Front Street, Hartford,and a Meranski family tradition states that David Meranski's restaurant at 25 Morgan Street l9l0-l9l5 was a continuation of one started by Sophie Tucker's father Charles Abuza,with Jewish singers and performers.Mother's sister Rebekah Geetter l906-l990 recollected Boris Thomaschevsky of the New York Second Avenue Yiddish theater performing and eating at the Meranski restaurant, with members of his family on tour.These contacts may date from l907,when the Meranskis moved to Lower East side, New York for a few months near Third Avenue and Twenty-Seventh Street.A friend named Samual Schlimbaum found David Meranski work as a tailor,but it proved temporary,and he returned to Portland Street, Hartford l908-l909 custom-tailoring overcoats for Gimmel Burnham,until he opened the restaurant.From this time may date certain short parody fragments Sophie used to sing:"I care not for the Hartford Times;I dare not read the Evening Post; I do not want the Journal - One cent and the World is mine" - "Moving day, moving day- Take your oil stove from the floor Take your stove, and there's the door." probably parody of Sophie Tucker's "Moving Day in Jungle Town l909,which spoofed Theodore Roosevelt's hunting expedition in Africa - "Oil, oil, kerosene oil- my oil is better than Finnegan's oil. Finnegan's oil is water. mine's kerosene oil" - this may parody a l907 song about the anti-trust action and Standard Oil.Another fragment Sophie sang may be a non-standard of Sophie Tucker's performed at Springfield l908 'Gay Young Masqueraders' from which I remember the line, "Last of all comes the clown, almost tumbling down."In this period the Meranskis clearly came under the spell of Irving Berlin, l888-l989, as I remember my mother singing nineteen of his songs,especially the unihibited early songs- more comic and more yiddish than when he became famous -"My wife has gone to the country hurray hurray!" "Cohen owes me ninety-Seven dollars" "Call me up some afternoon, and we'll arrange for a quiet little spoon""I'll leave the moon above to those in love when I'll leave the world behind""The Girl on the Magazine Cover" (which Sophie's brother Harry played on the occharina -"Tell me pretty gypsy what the future holds for me- Kindly cross my palm with silver and I'll try to see-tell me is there someone In the days that are to be - there's a boy for every girl in the world -there must be someone for me.""Alexander's Ragtime Band" - "Oh how I hate to get up in the morning- I'll put my uniform away I'll move to Philadelphia-ay And spend the rest of my life in bed." "Remember? Remember the night- the night you said I love you? Remember? Remember you vowed by all the stars above you? remember we found a lovely spot and after I learned to care a lot You promised that you'd forget me not, but you forgot to remember." Some sunny day, with a smile upon my face I'll go back to that place far away Back to that shack, where my red-headed hen will say where have you been? And go back to the hay and lay me my breakfast." Sophie used to sing a prologue to Albert von Tilzer's 1907 "Take me out to the Ball game" -"Katy Macy was baseball mad - Had the fever, and had it bad. On a Saturday her young beau Came to see if she wanted to go to the show. Katie, she said, "No..- Take me out to the ball game....." Hartford's Brown school had a good music program,and Sophie doubtless learned Stephen Foster's "Old Black Joe", "Suwanee River", "O Susanna", and "Massa's in the Cold,cold Ground", and George Root's Civil War songs "We shall meet, but we shall miss him, "Rally round the flag" ""Battle Cry of Freedom" - "In the prison cell I sit"."When you come to the end of a perfect day" was popular at this time also. Sophie sang "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" by Albert Gumble l9l3 "There's a girl in the heart of Maryland l9l3 In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginina l9l3 "Are You from Dixie?" Cobb-Yellen l9l5 "They'll never believe me " Jerome Kern l9l5 "Auf Wiedersehn" Sigmund Romberg l9l5 Danny boy l9l5, Roses are blooming in Picardy, a World War I song.Her l9l9 class song at Hartford Public High School has a melody close to the Chopin A-Flat Polonaise with the words," NINEteen , dear old NINEteen, Fairest class of old NINEteen. Fairest class at Hartford high- Love for you will never die- NINETEEN dear old NINEteen, Fairest class of Old NINE - teen."When the Meranskis moved to 4 Wooster Street,fall l9l6, sister Esther bought a piano and Babe{Rebekah} took extensive lessons. Phonograph records became widely available about l920, with Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson the early favorites. Sophie knew Con Conrad's "Ma he's making eyes at me- Ma he's getting bolder- ma he's sitting on my shoulder" from the Eddie Cantor repertoire, and Sophie's brother Ben (he took the middle name Franklin- he played the saxophone and was interested in vaudeville and theater) collected Al Jolson records at home- "O April Showers They come your way- California Here I come" "Where did Robinson Crusoe go with Friday on Saturday night?" and the Al Jolson theme song, "You ain't Heard Nuthin' Yet." ("and when the lights are turned down low I hug and kiss my pet.Now she'd get sore if I told ya more, But you ain't heard nuthin' yet."Back around l9l4 Sophie's eldest brother Harry Meranski under the stage name Harry Moran wrote some songs with his friend Martin Kupperstein, and they performed publicly as "Cooper and Moran." Harry played an occharina, a small wind instrument.The largest number of songs I remember my mother singing (total over four hundred) were learned at Mount Holyoke l9l9-l925 and in New York l920's.Although my mother Sophie was one of the very few Jewish girls at rural Mount Holyoke in South Hadley.,she enjoyed the compulsory Sunday chapel in which President Mary Woolley and distinguished visiting speaker participated, and learned many hymns such as "Holy,holy, holy" "Abide with me" "May we like Magdalene Lay at thy feet" "Onward.Christian Soldiers", "O Mother dear, Jerusalem".In Hawaii during World War II I remember Sophie singing from memory the college song "O Mount Holyoke we pay thee devotion with the fervor of youth that is strong The courage of right is thy garland- Our lives alma mater thy song - So from east and from west now we gather United in firm love to thee - Our years are as one, Our years and our hopes and our glorious faith Shall answer, Mount Holyoke To-o-o thee Shalt answer, Mount Holyoke to thee. Through the heart of the new day's endeavor Breathes the light of the old days that live - For what thou has given we honor, but we love the for what WE can give - Though in a whisper thou callest - our years , our hopes and our glorious faith Shall answer Mount Holyoke to thee."She also frequently sang the Evening song "Robed in sunset girded round by the deepening evening light stands our well-loved alma mater While we sing our soft 'goodnight.' Night winds whisper, whisper softly round the world and back to you, bearing gently from your daughters hopes and dreams and memories true.-To be woven in our singing 'good night, Holyoke, good night." Days of doing press upon us days of strving for thy fame Still at twilight here we gather whisper to the winds your name..."The l923 class song was "The Sphinx" with words by archaeologist Marion Nosser {born Turkey; lived in Brooklyn} and music by Ruth King Dunne " Wind hushed, the desert lies dreaming Under the far eatern sky Only the Sphinx keeps its vigil Waiting for daylight to die Now 'neath the warm blue of Heaven, Rousing itself with a sigh Softly it speaks and its whisper Floats to the dome of the sky.-Hark! Don't you hear the far echo Borne on the night wind to us Now has the Sphinx told its secret NON SIBI SED OMNIBUS.' Faithful, we''ll guard it forever, Marching beneath it unfurled until the age-long secret Lies in the heart of the world. [Latin means "for all, not self"]"During ths period after World War I there was great enthusiasm for group singing,and the class of l923 did very well in interclass competition under leadership of Mildred Holt,who later taught music in Great Neck, Long Island and was associated with Robert Shaw chorale.With the help of college history librarian at Williston library Mrs. Elaine Trehub I find details of the materials they sang, including various medleys. Probably at this time Sophie learned a setting to Verdi's Triumphal chorus in Aida of the words,'Where peace and freedom reign,the happy songs of children rise- the desolate of all the ear-earth find here there sorrow dies.and future years we pray fo=or thee America America, keep thou our land for-e-ever great and glorious and free." [Musical Interests, Jack and Sophie Barrett second part] [words Sophie sang to tune of Aida's TRIUMPHAL CHORUS from "COMPETITIVE SING" class activity at Mount Holyoke. At a meeting of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society in l979 Sophie sang a little "Fund-Raiser" comic song Mildred Holt and several classmates wrote in l921: (World War I had interrupted the usual fund-raising,Mount Holyoke always needed money for loans for poor students like Sophie, and fires in college buildings increased the needs: "Holyoke's raising COLLEGE-BRED (bread) from the FLOWER (flour) of the land; From YEAST (east) and west, With plenty of SPICE She makes a superior brand- We KNEAD (need) a lot of DOUGH To RAISE the fund 'tis said, But WE are KNEADED (needed) too, you see, For WE are COLLEGE-BREAD (bred)."-Capitalized words have double meanings.The more formal academic programs were led by organist Mr. Hammond - a prominent figure for decades in campus life - and l923 classmate Ruth Douglass currently l994 & l998 in Granville New York taught voice and choral music for forty-four years at Mount Holyoke until l967 retirement. She and her sister Mrs. Anna Haldeman lived in retirement on a large beautiful dairy farm with a plantation of black walnut trees and have helped document many aspects of college life and music from the l920's. Junior year Sophie's friend Brenda Glass had a lead part in a musical "Hyacinth." Sophie tried to tutor Brenda in economics, but she had problems with Ricardo and Taussig.Sophie used to recite,"Corn is not high because rent is dear. Rent is dear because corn is high."A classmate McKown from Philadelphia published a collection of comic songs entitled "l923 College Crackers" unfortunately not listing composers-lyricists. Sophie used to sing:" I had a fat twin brother - We looked like one another- You ought to see the way he'd laugh At the lickings I would get - he thought it very funny to go and borrow money And Watch the people chasing me to make me pay his debts. The girl I was to marry Couldn't tell us two apart- She went and married brother Jim, and she nearly broke my heart - But you betcha I got even With my brother Jim - I died about a week ago - And they went and buried him."..."Pull the shades down Mary Ann- Pull the shades down Mary Ann! Last night - by the pale moon light - I saw you - I saw you! You were combing your auburn hair On the back of a Morris chair - If you want to keep your secrets from your future men - Pull the shades down, Mary A-ann!" Possibly from ballad classes Sophie would sing "Where have you been all day? Henry my son? Where have you been all day, my loving one?" -"Down to my grandmother's -down to my grandma's - I have a pain in my side - And I want to lie - right - down!" -"What did she give you there? Henry my son? What did she give you there? my loving one?" - "Nothing but poison - Nothing but poison! I have a pain in my side - And I want to lie - right - down." Sophie spoke a German dialect at home with her mother (from Austrian Poland - Galicia-and she did well in the subject in high school and college. Her German teacher was Grace Bacon, who went to France around the end of the War with the Red Cross, Possibly through Grace Bacon Sophie learned, "Du, Du..." and "Alsace is sighing Lorraine is crying Your mother France looks to you Our hearts are bleeding Are you unheeding? Come with that flame in your glance. Through the gates of Heaven do they bar your way? Souls who passed through yesterday? Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc! Do your eyes from the skies see the foe? Can't you see the droooping fleurs-de-lis? Can't you hear the cries of Normandy? Joan of Arc- may your spirit guide us through Come lead your France to Victory! Joan of Arc, they are calling you!"A mystery song about which I have few clues - part of the melody resembles Johann Strauss's Wine, Women and Song in rhythm and whole-step pitch intervals: "Who loves not song, Music Song - Will live u-un-blessed his whole life long. O come O come and let us sing With hearts so bright a song of spring - O raise your voices high (two lines repeat) The birds that flit from tree to tree Are not so full of joy as we Though we alone know why (repeat) E'evn though a storm cloud may lower E'en though it follow a shower Sunshine belongs to the day Smiles we remember for aye. What a pity it is for a man who is born With a soul that is deaf Who holds music in Scorn So unblessed by the Best What a life he must lead without song Life is long- Is long indeed. Let us sing praise of spring caroling with music blessed Spring is here all the year if we sing 'O hail to Spring.""Possibly connected are these words to similar melody: "Sang at their toil Songs of the Soil - Courage they ga-athered so Singing in paean (pain?) A Gentle Refrain Melody soft and low - O from their paradise echoes the loving song Taught in the times of their peace singing that never shall cease- Until there is chaos again." [l998 addition-Two additional clues suggests that an old German drinking song used by Johann Strauss in an l868 Waltz "Wine Woman and song" were adapted perhaps for girls' chorus to the praise of song, omitting 'wine' and 'women." About 1823 it is reported Vienna composer Franz Schubert wrote on a friend's napkin this stanza: "Who loves not wine, women, and song, Remains a fool his whole life long." [words probably quoted, not written by Schubert]. In the l860's Johann Strauss the younger became famous for instrumental waltzes, notably Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods,and Wine,Women and Song. Until 2000 we did not know whether words were attached to these melodies, but his wife was a singer, and in the l870's he turned his main attention to operettas, including "Die Fledermaus" (the Bat).In l871 he was a guest conductor in Boston, and it is possible some vocal arrangement from his melody was produced.This was one of the most substantial mysteries in unidentified tunes the Barrett family sang, until the year 2000, when material prepared by the Honorary Secretary of the Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain confirmed that "Wein, Weib, und Gesang" had four German stanzas in praise of wine, women, song, and Martin Luther, reputedly the author of the words quoted by Schubert in 1825. For women's choruses, sometime arranged an English version in praise of song, retaining references to spring, sunshine, and storms from the German original. Sophie lived in Philadelphia l926 and half of l927 while developing Statistical Reporting Techniques for Child Guidance Clinics at a Commonwealth Fund Demonstration Clinic funded by Albert Harkness.Letters mention hearing Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia orchestra and a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's PINAFORE. For a time she lived with an aunt of classmate Rebecca Smaltz,and it was likely at this time she heard Gaskill and Shisler's 1912 "I'm the guy who put the DOUGH in the DOUGHNUT and the CUSS in CUSTARD too - did you ever stop to wonder Who put the noise in Thunder? Look at ME -I'm the GUY>"Becky wrote a parody, "I'm the guy who put the GERM in the German and the ME in MEASLES too Did you ever stop to think Where they got the Rash so pink? Look at me! I'm the Guy." Sophie's youngest brother Pete went to University of Maryland Medical School after graduation from Trinity l925 and married a Baltimore girl Jen Goldberg -Sophie attended the wedding June 9, l929. This may partly explain Sophie's fondness for the chorus "There's a girl in the heart of Maryland With a Heart that belongs to me -When I told her of my love, the ORIOLE above Sang from the old Apple tree And Maryland was fairyland When she promised my bride she'd be - There's a girl in the Heart of Maryland with a Heart that Belong to ME!" Sophie also sang a parody to the same tune (source unknown - there may be more words?- ) "There's a MAN in my room! ' cried Mary Ann - 'Put him out put him out!' cried Sue. 'I'm afraid, I'm afraid' cried another little maid, 'What shall we all ever do?' .....(much younger man?).. 'Who do you sup=po-ose that he may be?' - 'No you don't put him out' cried Mary Ann - "What's in my ro-om belongs to me!'", Sophie knew at least ten songs of the comic team Sam Lewis (originally Levine) and Joe Young including two with Bert Grant melodies "If I Knock the 'L' out of Kelly" and "Arrah go wan. I want to go back to Oregon." The words are "Timothy Kelly who owned a big store Wanted the Name Painted over the Door One day Pat Clancy the Painterman Came Tried to Be Fancy and Mis-Spelled the Name. Instead of a KELLY with a Double - L, Y - He painted 'KELY', but one 'L' was shy -Pat says it looks right, but I want no pay - I figured it out in my own little way - If I knock the 'L' out of Kelly, It would still be 'KELLY" to me - Sure a single 'L", 'Y' or a DOUBLE 'LL" 'Y' Should look the same to any Irishman's eye- eye -eye Knock off the 'L' from Killarney- Still Killarney it always would be - But if I knock the 'L' out of KELLy, he'll knock the 'ell out of me.!" Also - "Pat McCarthy, hale and hearty Living in Oregon He heard a lot of talk about the great New York - So he left the farm where all was calm, and he landed on old Broadway - He took the little Mary-Ann into a swell cafe - 'Arrah go wan! I want to go back to Oregon! Arrah go wan I want to go back to stay! I could feed the horses many a bale of hay For all that is costs to feed one chick on old Broadway! Arrah go wan! Go witcha - go 'way go wan - Arrah go wan I want to go back to Oregon!"When the Barretts lived at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard, Waikiki nearly six years l941 to l947 with blackouts, gas masks, barbed wire, and air raids, Sophie sang a great deal,and many of her favorites were from New York in the l920's - Jerome Kern's "Moonlight in Kailua" Rudolf Frilm's "Rose Marie I love you" Vincent Youmans-Irving Caesar "I Want to Be Happpy" and "Tea for Two" Hirsch "Just a Love Nest" Billy Rose "It Happened in Monterey a Long Time Ago' "Barney google with the goo-Goo-Googledy Eyes" Sigmund Romberg "One Alone","Your Land and My Land", and l930's "When I Grow too Old to Dream"- also a favorite of President Franklin Roosevelt.Sophie knew several amusing New york nightclub "Hawaii" songs l9l5 Hello Hawaii-a? How are you?I want to talk to Honolulu Lou - to ask her this - Give me a kiss - give me a kiss by wireless Please state I can't wait to hear her reply. I had to pawn every little thing I own to talk from New york by the wireless telephone hello Hawaii-a How are you? goodbye." -.. "They're wearing them higher in Hawaii-a Higher, higher, higher, higher in Hawaii-a! The beautiful beach at Waikiki Is not the only pretty sight that you will see. Hula maids are always full of pep - All the old men have to watch their step. They're wearing them higher in Hawaii-a Going up Growing up every day!" During the war Sophie liked to attend band concerts weekly at Waikiki's Kapiolani Park near the bird collections - with an Argentine rhea and crowned African crane. Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach's l933 "Smoke Gets in your Eyes" was a favorite of Sophie's and so was Edgar Leslie and Wright l927 "Some letters tied in blue A photograph or two I find a rose from you among my Souvenirs a few more tokens rest within my treasure chest and though they do their best bring me consolation I count them all apart,and as the Teardrops start I find a broken heart among my souvenirs."Sophie lived in China l930-l931 and loved the Chinese people, who were surviving times of extreme hardship, war, and poverty. Sophie lived mainly in Tientsin but traveled to Peking,Shanghai,Wei=hai-wei, and out-of the way places near Chefoo. I hope no Chinese reader will be offended when I recollect Sophie singing the second verse of the navy song "The Monkeys Have No Tales in Zamboanga" -: "They wear clothespins on their noses in North China -They wear clothespins on their noses in North China - They Wear Clothespins on their noses for Chefoo doesn't Smell Like Roses -They wear clothespins on theiir noses in North China." Sophie lived in Chefoo for a week with goats just outside theWineglass boardinghouse during Asiatic Fleet l93l gunnery exercises, and these lines bring her vividly to life in my memory. On the radio l940's Sophie liked Metropolitan Opera, Kate Smith in "I Threw a Kiss to the Ocean" and"God Bless America"; - Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition -"There'll be BlueBirds over the White Cliffs of Dover Tomorrow when the World is Free" - and postwar "Don't Fence me in" and "Buttons and Bows."The Barretts bought an upright Baldwin spinet piano on Jack's birthday,August 28, l940 at Macy's stores while living at 96l5 Shore Road,Brooklyn, and John memorized,"pussycat,pussycat,, where have you been?" from Williams's "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" - but the piano went into storage over six years when the Barretts went to Pearl Harbor July l941.In l943 John occasionally played the piano on Ohua Street at the home of Celestine and John Barbour -(Mrs. Barbour taught first grade at Thomas Jefferson School). In l946 the Barretts rented a violin, and John took lessons from Laura Canafax and William Rusinak at Punahou School. Jack and John tried to interest Sophie in the piano, but she played only a two-finger octave arrangement of "My country, tis of thee" in which she filled in intervening notes where the melody rises a fifth C to G - she would play in each hand in octaves c,d,e,f,g,, very distinctive.I have already mentioned the close family relationship since l947 with our piano teacher Giuseppe deLellis and his wife Connie and family.Jack Barrett also did a great deal of elocution and public speaking at lincoln School South Boston l897- l902 - Boston Latin School l902-l906 Revenue Cutter School l909-l9ll , and Gonzaga University, District of Columbia l9l7, and in Navy and law school. He recited "Sheridan's Ride" "Wonderful one-hoss shay" of Oliver Wendell Holmes - "the Raven" of Poe and comic poems of James T. Fields - "The Owl Critic" and "The Nantucket Skipper>" Once in a Boston Latin declamation, he was four lines from the end of a Thomas B. Read poem, "And it was War, War, War...." when his time expired and he had to sit down. Shortly after arriving in Boston from China in l932, he judged a public speaking contest at Cambridge Latin School in which the audience laughed at one of the contestants who overemphasized the name "Minnehaha" in Longfellow's "Hiawatha." To mention a few more of Sophie's favorites "Tiptoe through the tulips with me" "If you don't like your uncle Sammy", .."They built a little garden for the rose And they called it Dixieland They put a summer breeze to keep the snow far away from Dixieland They built the finest place I know when they built my hone sweet home Nothing was forgotten in the Land of cotton From the clover to the honeycomb And then they took an angel from the skies and they gave her heart to me They put a bit of heaven in her eyes Just as blue as blue can be They put some fine spring chicken in the landAnd taught my mammy how to use a frying pan, They made it twice as nice as paradise And THEY CALLED IT DIXIELAND." In conversation Sophie often used the title of a Jerome Kern song "Once in a Blue Moon." Jack remembered the cold weather in Egypt when they visited the Sphinx January 1932 - he was reminded of the song "Till the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold" - "They WERE cold!" he said.
Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
p 56 #1091
RED HEADED STEPCHILD
Part I
Sophie Meranski Barrett early years 1901-1930
Chapter SIX
MUSICAL INERESTS OF JACK + SOPHIE BARRETT
Musical Interests of Jack & Sophie Barrett,first part After the death of his mother June l889 John Berchmans Barrett lived on Park and Baxter Streets in Melrose until 1894,when his father remarried and returned to South Boston.Maternal Buckley aunts and grandparents lived next door- grandparents Dan Buckley and Mary Ann O Farrell were emigrants from Moskeigh and Kilbarry Templemartin parish Cork about 1851.It was probably at this time Jack learned Alfred Tennyson's lullaby "Sweet and Low" and another "Sleep,baby sleep Thy father watches the sheep The stars look do..wn on thee-sleep, baby sleep"; grandmother had a piano,and she apparently intended Jack to inherit it, but the will inadvertently named "John Berchmans Buckley" and the piano went to a first cousinJohn Buckley -l896 although his middle name was not Berchmans.While living at 634 East SeventhStreet between L and M Streets in South Boston in the late l890's, Jack Barrett was a member of the choir at Gate of Heaven church near I and East Fourth Streets, until his friend Joe Buckley not a relative,but a neighbor at M and Eighth streets was caught with a water pistol that belonged to Jack,and they both were expelled from the choir. Jack took piano lessons at a time when some instructors favored a stiff wrist, and recollects practicing with a quarter coin balanced on each wrist.At Boston Latin School l902-l906 he learned "Adeste fideles" and "Gloria in excelsis deo"- Christmas carols.Prior to his marriage Jack dated several serious students of piano and voice including Lucile Nelson from Charleston,South Carolina, who studied in Paris with Madame Calve and toured in cast of Sigmund Romberg's "Blossom Time" a fictionalized treatment of Franz Schubert's life.In Hawaii l927Jack purchased a small ukulele.While demobilized temporarily from the Navy after World War I Jack went round the world as an officer of the commercial ship WESTERNER and in London he saw ballerina Pavlova in her best-known role as the swan in Camille Saint-Saens "Le Cygne."Jack was amused by the name of the musician Ossip Gabrilowitch,son-in-law of Mark Twain and he often played Jan Paderewski's "Minuet a l'Antique", '"Le Secret" of Gautier,"Andante Cantabile" from Tchaikowsky string quartet, Mendelssohn's "Consolation" and selections of Chaminade,Chopin Liszt,Grieg,Macdowell, Thomas,Delibes,Thome, Massanet,Schumann.He had a great enthusiasm for violinist Fritz Kreisler and must have heard him perform, possibly in WashingtonDC l9l3-l9l8 or New York l920's.He knew "The Old Refrain and "Caprice Viennois"and in the l950's we obtained Kreisler's performance of Beethoven's violin concerto in D with Sir John Barbirolli conducting, and Liebesfreud and Liebeslied recordings and Kreisler's performances of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home" and Ethelbert Nevin's "Rosary."In later years Jack often practiced the four pieces of Ethelbert Nevin's Giorno in Venezia"-Day in Venice with its subtlies of ornamentation and rubato.When I was learning to talk l937-8 in Philadelphia,Jack used to sing (author unknown?) "She was just a sailor's sweetheart But she loved her sailor lad -Though he left her broken-hearted -He was all she ever had. But she still believes in sailors; and she's true- to the Red, White, and Blue, And although she's barred from the navy yard, She loves her sailor boy, positively."He also knew 'the Old Oaken bucket","You take the High road and I'll take the low road (Loch Lomond), and "Barnacle Bill the sailor." In his last years l967-l969 Jack and I (John junior) TOOK JOINT PIANO LESSONS WITH GIUSEPPE DELELLIS OF NEWTON, WHO HAD GIVEN ME PIANO LESSONS 1947-1951 AND WAS A GRAD OF LONGY SCHOOL AND NADIA BOULANGER.GIUSEPPE TAUGHT AT roxbury Latin and Beaver School and Dean Junior College.Rossini was a special enthusiasm of his along with Mozart,Chopin,Schubert,and Rachmininoff.. We made a number of tapes,but the technology changed, and I have been unable to find equipment to see if anything is left playable on the tapes.Onr of Jack's l906 Boston Latin classmates Edward P. Illingworth became an organist after studying with Ferrucio Busoni. He moved about l9l7 from South Boston to 64 Hastings Street, West Roxbury, and his daughter Geraldine was an pianist.SOPHIE MERANSKI BARRETT l90l-l987 Her mother Tolley Goldfeld came fromBrody,Galicia a town with strong musical traditions,but there is no evidence of direct influence.Around l90l the Meranskis were neighbors of Sophie Tucker's father on Front Street, Hartford,and a Meranski family tradition states that David Meranski's restaurant at 25 Morgan Street l9l0-l9l5 was a continuation of one started by Sophie Tucker's father Charles Abuza,with Jewish singers and performers.Mother's sister Rebekah Geetter l906-l990 recollected Boris Thomaschevsky of the New York Second Avenue Yiddish theater performing and eating at the Meranski restaurant, with members of his family on tour.These contacts may date from l907,when the Meranskis moved to Lower East side, New York for a few months near Third Avenue and Twenty-Seventh Street.A friend named Samual Schlimbaum found David Meranski work as a tailor,but it proved temporary,and he returned to Portland Street, Hartford l908-l909 custom-tailoring overcoats for Gimmel Burnham,until he opened the restaurant.From this time may date certain short parody fragments Sophie used to sing:"I care not for the Hartford Times;I dare not read the Evening Post; I do not want the Journal - One cent and the World is mine" - "Moving day, moving day- Take your oil stove from the floor Take your stove, and there's the door." probably parody of Sophie Tucker's "Moving Day in Jungle Town l909,which spoofed Theodore Roosevelt's hunting expedition in Africa - "Oil, oil, kerosene oil- my oil is better than Finnegan's oil. Finnegan's oil is water. mine's kerosene oil" - this may parody a l907 song about the anti-trust action and Standard Oil.Another fragment Sophie sang may be a non-standard of Sophie Tucker's performed at Springfield l908 'Gay Young Masqueraders' from which I remember the line, "Last of all comes the clown, almost tumbling down."In this period the Meranskis clearly came under the spell of Irving Berlin, l888-l989, as I remember my mother singing nineteen of his songs,especially the unihibited early songs- more comic and more yiddish than when he became famous -"My wife has gone to the country hurray hurray!" "Cohen owes me ninety-Seven dollars" "Call me up some afternoon, and we'll arrange for a quiet little spoon""I'll leave the moon above to those in love when I'll leave the world behind""The Girl on the Magazine Cover" (which Sophie's brother Harry played on the occharina -"Tell me pretty gypsy what the future holds for me- Kindly cross my palm with silver and I'll try to see-tell me is there someone In the days that are to be - there's a boy for every girl in the world -there must be someone for me.""Alexander's Ragtime Band" - "Oh how I hate to get up in the morning- I'll put my uniform away I'll move to Philadelphia-ay And spend the rest of my life in bed." "Remember? Remember the night- the night you said I love you? Remember? Remember you vowed by all the stars above you? remember we found a lovely spot and after I learned to care a lot You promised that you'd forget me not, but you forgot to remember." Some sunny day, with a smile upon my face I'll go back to that place far away Back to that shack, where my red-headed hen will say where have you been? And go back to the hay and lay me my breakfast." Sophie used to sing a prologue to Albert von Tilzer's 1907 "Take me out to the Ball game" -"Katy Macy was baseball mad - Had the fever, and had it bad. On a Saturday her young beau Came to see if she wanted to go to the show. Katie, she said, "No..- Take me out to the ball game....." Hartford's Brown school had a good music program,and Sophie doubtless learned Stephen Foster's "Old Black Joe", "Suwanee River", "O Susanna", and "Massa's in the Cold,cold Ground", and George Root's Civil War songs "We shall meet, but we shall miss him, "Rally round the flag" ""Battle Cry of Freedom" - "In the prison cell I sit"."When you come to the end of a perfect day" was popular at this time also. Sophie sang "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" by Albert Gumble l9l3 "There's a girl in the heart of Maryland l9l3 In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginina l9l3 "Are You from Dixie?" Cobb-Yellen l9l5 "They'll never believe me " Jerome Kern l9l5 "Auf Wiedersehn" Sigmund Romberg l9l5 Danny boy l9l5, Roses are blooming in Picardy, a World War I song.Her l9l9 class song at Hartford Public High School has a melody close to the Chopin A-Flat Polonaise with the words," NINEteen , dear old NINEteen, Fairest class of old NINEteen. Fairest class at Hartford high- Love for you will never die- NINETEEN dear old NINEteen, Fairest class of Old NINE - teen."When the Meranskis moved to 4 Wooster Street,fall l9l6, sister Esther bought a piano and Babe{Rebekah} took extensive lessons. Phonograph records became widely available about l920, with Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson the early favorites. Sophie knew Con Conrad's "Ma he's making eyes at me- Ma he's getting bolder- ma he's sitting on my shoulder" from the Eddie Cantor repertoire, and Sophie's brother Ben (he took the middle name Franklin- he played the saxophone and was interested in vaudeville and theater) collected Al Jolson records at home- "O April Showers They come your way- California Here I come" "Where did Robinson Crusoe go with Friday on Saturday night?" and the Al Jolson theme song, "You ain't Heard Nuthin' Yet." ("and when the lights are turned down low I hug and kiss my pet.Now she'd get sore if I told ya more, But you ain't heard nuthin' yet."Back around l9l4 Sophie's eldest brother Harry Meranski under the stage name Harry Moran wrote some songs with his friend Martin Kupperstein, and they performed publicly as "Cooper and Moran." Harry played an occharina, a small wind instrument.The largest number of songs I remember my mother singing (total over four hundred) were learned at Mount Holyoke l9l9-l925 and in New York l920's.Although my mother Sophie was one of the very few Jewish girls at rural Mount Holyoke in South Hadley.,she enjoyed the compulsory Sunday chapel in which President Mary Woolley and distinguished visiting speaker participated, and learned many hymns such as "Holy,holy, holy" "Abide with me" "May we like Magdalene Lay at thy feet" "Onward.Christian Soldiers", "O Mother dear, Jerusalem".In Hawaii during World War II I remember Sophie singing from memory the college song "O Mount Holyoke we pay thee devotion with the fervor of youth that is strong The courage of right is thy garland- Our lives alma mater thy song - So from east and from west now we gather United in firm love to thee - Our years are as one, Our years and our hopes and our glorious faith Shall answer, Mount Holyoke To-o-o thee Shalt answer, Mount Holyoke to thee. Through the heart of the new day's endeavor Breathes the light of the old days that live - For what thou has given we honor, but we love the for what WE can give - Though in a whisper thou callest - our years , our hopes and our glorious faith Shall answer Mount Holyoke to thee."She also frequently sang the Evening song "Robed in sunset girded round by the deepening evening light stands our well-loved alma mater While we sing our soft 'goodnight.' Night winds whisper, whisper softly round the world and back to you, bearing gently from your daughters hopes and dreams and memories true.-To be woven in our singing 'good night, Holyoke, good night." Days of doing press upon us days of strving for thy fame Still at twilight here we gather whisper to the winds your name..."The l923 class song was "The Sphinx" with words by archaeologist Marion Nosser {born Turkey; lived in Brooklyn} and music by Ruth King Dunne " Wind hushed, the desert lies dreaming Under the far eatern sky Only the Sphinx keeps its vigil Waiting for daylight to die Now 'neath the warm blue of Heaven, Rousing itself with a sigh Softly it speaks and its whisper Floats to the dome of the sky.-Hark! Don't you hear the far echo Borne on the night wind to us Now has the Sphinx told its secret NON SIBI SED OMNIBUS.' Faithful, we''ll guard it forever, Marching beneath it unfurled until the age-long secret Lies in the heart of the world. [Latin means "for all, not self"]"During ths period after World War I there was great enthusiasm for group singing,and the class of l923 did very well in interclass competition under leadership of Mildred Holt,who later taught music in Great Neck, Long Island and was associated with Robert Shaw chorale.With the help of college history librarian at Williston library Mrs. Elaine Trehub I find details of the materials they sang, including various medleys. Probably at this time Sophie learned a setting to Verdi's Triumphal chorus in Aida of the words,'Where peace and freedom reign,the happy songs of children rise- the desolate of all the ear-earth find here there sorrow dies.and future years we pray fo=or thee America America, keep thou our land for-e-ever great and glorious and free." [Musical Interests, Jack and Sophie Barrett second part] [words Sophie sang to tune of Aida's TRIUMPHAL CHORUS from "COMPETITIVE SING" class activity at Mount Holyoke. At a meeting of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society in l979 Sophie sang a little "Fund-Raiser" comic song Mildred Holt and several classmates wrote in l921: (World War I had interrupted the usual fund-raising,Mount Holyoke always needed money for loans for poor students like Sophie, and fires in college buildings increased the needs: "Holyoke's raising COLLEGE-BRED (bread) from the FLOWER (flour) of the land; From YEAST (east) and west, With plenty of SPICE She makes a superior brand- We KNEAD (need) a lot of DOUGH To RAISE the fund 'tis said, But WE are KNEADED (needed) too, you see, For WE are COLLEGE-BREAD (bred)."-Capitalized words have double meanings.The more formal academic programs were led by organist Mr. Hammond - a prominent figure for decades in campus life - and l923 classmate Ruth Douglass currently l994 & l998 in Granville New York taught voice and choral music for forty-four years at Mount Holyoke until l967 retirement. She and her sister Mrs. Anna Haldeman lived in retirement on a large beautiful dairy farm with a plantation of black walnut trees and have helped document many aspects of college life and music from the l920's. Junior year Sophie's friend Brenda Glass had a lead part in a musical "Hyacinth." Sophie tried to tutor Brenda in economics, but she had problems with Ricardo and Taussig.Sophie used to recite,"Corn is not high because rent is dear. Rent is dear because corn is high."A classmate McKown from Philadelphia published a collection of comic songs entitled "l923 College Crackers" unfortunately not listing composers-lyricists. Sophie used to sing:" I had a fat twin brother - We looked like one another- You ought to see the way he'd laugh At the lickings I would get - he thought it very funny to go and borrow money And Watch the people chasing me to make me pay his debts. The girl I was to marry Couldn't tell us two apart- She went and married brother Jim, and she nearly broke my heart - But you betcha I got even With my brother Jim - I died about a week ago - And they went and buried him."..."Pull the shades down Mary Ann- Pull the shades down Mary Ann! Last night - by the pale moon light - I saw you - I saw you! You were combing your auburn hair On the back of a Morris chair - If you want to keep your secrets from your future men - Pull the shades down, Mary A-ann!" Possibly from ballad classes Sophie would sing "Where have you been all day? Henry my son? Where have you been all day, my loving one?" -"Down to my grandmother's -down to my grandma's - I have a pain in my side - And I want to lie - right - down!" -"What did she give you there? Henry my son? What did she give you there? my loving one?" - "Nothing but poison - Nothing but poison! I have a pain in my side - And I want to lie - right - down." Sophie spoke a German dialect at home with her mother (from Austrian Poland - Galicia-and she did well in the subject in high school and college. Her German teacher was Grace Bacon, who went to France around the end of the War with the Red Cross, Possibly through Grace Bacon Sophie learned, "Du, Du..." and "Alsace is sighing Lorraine is crying Your mother France looks to you Our hearts are bleeding Are you unheeding? Come with that flame in your glance. Through the gates of Heaven do they bar your way? Souls who passed through yesterday? Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc! Do your eyes from the skies see the foe? Can't you see the droooping fleurs-de-lis? Can't you hear the cries of Normandy? Joan of Arc- may your spirit guide us through Come lead your France to Victory! Joan of Arc, they are calling you!"A mystery song about which I have few clues - part of the melody resembles Johann Strauss's Wine, Women and Song in rhythm and whole-step pitch intervals: "Who loves not song, Music Song - Will live u-un-blessed his whole life long. O come O come and let us sing With hearts so bright a song of spring - O raise your voices high (two lines repeat) The birds that flit from tree to tree Are not so full of joy as we Though we alone know why (repeat) E'evn though a storm cloud may lower E'en though it follow a shower Sunshine belongs to the day Smiles we remember for aye. What a pity it is for a man who is born With a soul that is deaf Who holds music in Scorn So unblessed by the Best What a life he must lead without song Life is long- Is long indeed. Let us sing praise of spring caroling with music blessed Spring is here all the year if we sing 'O hail to Spring.""Possibly connected are these words to similar melody: "Sang at their toil Songs of the Soil - Courage they ga-athered so Singing in paean (pain?) A Gentle Refrain Melody soft and low - O from their paradise echoes the loving song Taught in the times of their peace singing that never shall cease- Until there is chaos again." [l998 addition-Two additional clues suggests that an old German drinking song used by Johann Strauss in an l868 Waltz "Wine Woman and song" were adapted perhaps for girls' chorus to the praise of song, omitting 'wine' and 'women." About 1823 it is reported Vienna composer Franz Schubert wrote on a friend's napkin this stanza: "Who loves not wine, women, and song, Remains a fool his whole life long." [words probably quoted, not written by Schubert]. In the l860's Johann Strauss the younger became famous for instrumental waltzes, notably Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods,and Wine,Women and Song. Until 2000 we did not know whether words were attached to these melodies, but his wife was a singer, and in the l870's he turned his main attention to operettas, including "Die Fledermaus" (the Bat).In l871 he was a guest conductor in Boston, and it is possible some vocal arrangement from his melody was produced.This was one of the most substantial mysteries in unidentified tunes the Barrett family sang, until the year 2000, when material prepared by the Honorary Secretary of the Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain confirmed that "Wein, Weib, und Gesang" had four German stanzas in praise of wine, women, song, and Martin Luther, reputedly the author of the words quoted by Schubert in 1825. For women's choruses, sometime arranged an English version in praise of song, retaining references to spring, sunshine, and storms from the German original. Sophie lived in Philadelphia l926 and half of l927 while developing Statistical Reporting Techniques for Child Guidance Clinics at a Commonwealth Fund Demonstration Clinic funded by Albert Harkness.Letters mention hearing Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia orchestra and a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's PINAFORE. For a time she lived with an aunt of classmate Rebecca Smaltz,and it was likely at this time she heard Gaskill and Shisler's 1912 "I'm the guy who put the DOUGH in the DOUGHNUT and the CUSS in CUSTARD too - did you ever stop to wonder Who put the noise in Thunder? Look at ME -I'm the GUY>"Becky wrote a parody, "I'm the guy who put the GERM in the German and the ME in MEASLES too Did you ever stop to think Where they got the Rash so pink? Look at me! I'm the Guy." Sophie's youngest brother Pete went to University of Maryland Medical School after graduation from Trinity l925 and married a Baltimore girl Jen Goldberg -Sophie attended the wedding June 9, l929. This may partly explain Sophie's fondness for the chorus "There's a girl in the heart of Maryland With a Heart that belongs to me -When I told her of my love, the ORIOLE above Sang from the old Apple tree And Maryland was fairyland When she promised my bride she'd be - There's a girl in the Heart of Maryland with a Heart that Belong to ME!" Sophie also sang a parody to the same tune (source unknown - there may be more words?- ) "There's a MAN in my room! ' cried Mary Ann - 'Put him out put him out!' cried Sue. 'I'm afraid, I'm afraid' cried another little maid, 'What shall we all ever do?' .....(much younger man?).. 'Who do you sup=po-ose that he may be?' - 'No you don't put him out' cried Mary Ann - "What's in my ro-om belongs to me!'", Sophie knew at least ten songs of the comic team Sam Lewis (originally Levine) and Joe Young including two with Bert Grant melodies "If I Knock the 'L' out of Kelly" and "Arrah go wan. I want to go back to Oregon." The words are "Timothy Kelly who owned a big store Wanted the Name Painted over the Door One day Pat Clancy the Painterman Came Tried to Be Fancy and Mis-Spelled the Name. Instead of a KELLY with a Double - L, Y - He painted 'KELY', but one 'L' was shy -Pat says it looks right, but I want no pay - I figured it out in my own little way - If I knock the 'L' out of Kelly, It would still be 'KELLY" to me - Sure a single 'L", 'Y' or a DOUBLE 'LL" 'Y' Should look the same to any Irishman's eye- eye -eye Knock off the 'L' from Killarney- Still Killarney it always would be - But if I knock the 'L' out of KELLy, he'll knock the 'ell out of me.!" Also - "Pat McCarthy, hale and hearty Living in Oregon He heard a lot of talk about the great New York - So he left the farm where all was calm, and he landed on old Broadway - He took the little Mary-Ann into a swell cafe - 'Arrah go wan! I want to go back to Oregon! Arrah go wan I want to go back to stay! I could feed the horses many a bale of hay For all that is costs to feed one chick on old Broadway! Arrah go wan! Go witcha - go 'way go wan - Arrah go wan I want to go back to Oregon!"When the Barretts lived at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard, Waikiki nearly six years l941 to l947 with blackouts, gas masks, barbed wire, and air raids, Sophie sang a great deal,and many of her favorites were from New York in the l920's - Jerome Kern's "Moonlight in Kailua" Rudolf Frilm's "Rose Marie I love you" Vincent Youmans-Irving Caesar "I Want to Be Happpy" and "Tea for Two" Hirsch "Just a Love Nest" Billy Rose "It Happened in Monterey a Long Time Ago' "Barney google with the goo-Goo-Googledy Eyes" Sigmund Romberg "One Alone","Your Land and My Land", and l930's "When I Grow too Old to Dream"- also a favorite of President Franklin Roosevelt.Sophie knew several amusing New york nightclub "Hawaii" songs l9l5 Hello Hawaii-a? How are you?I want to talk to Honolulu Lou - to ask her this - Give me a kiss - give me a kiss by wireless Please state I can't wait to hear her reply. I had to pawn every little thing I own to talk from New york by the wireless telephone hello Hawaii-a How are you? goodbye." -.. "They're wearing them higher in Hawaii-a Higher, higher, higher, higher in Hawaii-a! The beautiful beach at Waikiki Is not the only pretty sight that you will see. Hula maids are always full of pep - All the old men have to watch their step. They're wearing them higher in Hawaii-a Going up Growing up every day!" During the war Sophie liked to attend band concerts weekly at Waikiki's Kapiolani Park near the bird collections - with an Argentine rhea and crowned African crane. Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach's l933 "Smoke Gets in your Eyes" was a favorite of Sophie's and so was Edgar Leslie and Wright l927 "Some letters tied in blue A photograph or two I find a rose from you among my Souvenirs a few more tokens rest within my treasure chest and though they do their best bring me consolation I count them all apart,and as the Teardrops start I find a broken heart among my souvenirs."Sophie lived in China l930-l931 and loved the Chinese people, who were surviving times of extreme hardship, war, and poverty. Sophie lived mainly in Tientsin but traveled to Peking,Shanghai,Wei=hai-wei, and out-of the way places near Chefoo. I hope no Chinese reader will be offended when I recollect Sophie singing the second verse of the navy song "The Monkeys Have No Tales in Zamboanga" -: "They wear clothespins on their noses in North China -They wear clothespins on their noses in North China - They Wear Clothespins on their noses for Chefoo doesn't Smell Like Roses -They wear clothespins on theiir noses in North China." Sophie lived in Chefoo for a week with goats just outside theWineglass boardinghouse during Asiatic Fleet l93l gunnery exercises, and these lines bring her vividly to life in my memory. On the radio l940's Sophie liked Metropolitan Opera, Kate Smith in "I Threw a Kiss to the Ocean" and"God Bless America"; - Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition -"There'll be BlueBirds over the White Cliffs of Dover Tomorrow when the World is Free" - and postwar "Don't Fence me in" and "Buttons and Bows."The Barretts bought an upright Baldwin spinet piano on Jack's birthday,August 28, l940 at Macy's stores while living at 96l5 Shore Road,Brooklyn, and John memorized,"pussycat,pussycat,, where have you been?" from Williams's "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" - but the piano went into storage over six years when the Barretts went to Pearl Harbor July l941.In l943 John occasionally played the piano on Ohua Street at the home of Celestine and John Barbour -(Mrs. Barbour taught first grade at Thomas Jefferson School). In l946 the Barretts rented a violin, and John took lessons from Laura Canafax and William Rusinak at Punahou School. Jack and John tried to interest Sophie in the piano, but she played only a two-finger octave arrangement of "My country, tis of thee" in which she filled in intervening notes where the melody rises a fifth C to G - she would play in each hand in octaves c,d,e,f,g,, very distinctive.I have already mentioned the close family relationship since l947 with our piano teacher Giuseppe deLellis and his wife Connie and family.Jack Barrett also did a great deal of elocution and public speaking at lincoln School South Boston l897- l902 - Boston Latin School l902-l906 Revenue Cutter School l909-l9ll , and Gonzaga University, District of Columbia l9l7, and in Navy and law school. He recited "Sheridan's Ride" "Wonderful one-hoss shay" of Oliver Wendell Holmes - "the Raven" of Poe and comic poems of James T. Fields - "The Owl Critic" and "The Nantucket Skipper>" Once in a Boston Latin declamation, he was four lines from the end of a Thomas B. Read poem, "And it was War, War, War...." when his time expired and he had to sit down. Shortly after arriving in Boston from China in l932, he judged a public speaking contest at Cambridge Latin School in which the audience laughed at one of the contestants who overemphasized the name "Minnehaha" in Longfellow's "Hiawatha." To mention a few more of Sophie's favorites "Tiptoe through the tulips with me" "If you don't like your uncle Sammy", .."They built a little garden for the rose And they called it Dixieland They put a summer breeze to keep the snow far away from Dixieland They built the finest place I know when they built my hone sweet home Nothing was forgotten in the Land of cotton From the clover to the honeycomb And then they took an angel from the skies and they gave her heart to me They put a bit of heaven in her eyes Just as blue as blue can be They put some fine spring chicken in the landAnd taught my mammy how to use a frying pan, They made it twice as nice as paradise And THEY CALLED IT DIXIELAND." In conversation Sophie often used the title of a Jerome Kern song "Once in a Blue Moon." Jack remembered the cold weather in Egypt when they visited the Sphinx January 1932 - he was reminded of the song "Till the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold" - "They WERE cold!" he said.
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