An instrumental version of The
Bear Went Over the Mountain tune played when I opened the card. That was a song that my father's father, Ernie
Thomas, used to sing with us when we were little. It also fit his
desire to go places and see things. When I got my drivers license in
high school he wanted to see the Viking site on the northern peninsula
of Newfoundland. He went with me and two of high school friends on a
camping trip there in 1969. Later he went with me and my brother and
another high school friend, Jim Flagg all the way to Oregon and back.
He also went with me and my girlfriend at the time to the Grand Canyon.
All the trips were camping in tents and sleeping on the ground even though he was in his seventies, having been born in 1901.
Here he is in 1989.
I
remember him singing about four other songs on a regular basis.
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Down by the Riverside
On Top of Old Smokey
Down in the Valley - I didn't know till now that it was also called Birmingham Jail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z39QwP7_4Fc
When
he would come visit me at the University of Rhode Island sometimes we
would drive out to Jamestown, an island in the middle of the the
Narragansett Bay. On the north end of the island was an isolated bar
that may have had an inn attached. They had Saturday night sing-alongs
with lyric books they passed out and a lively piano player. Olive and
Ernie Thomas, my grandparents really enjoyed going out there. Sometimes
we would have to drive back very carefully as a fog would creep across
the island while we were inside enjoying the music and song.
Here's a picture of Olive and Ernie, side by side, with my sister Deb's, mother-in-law telling Olive to look at the camera.
Here's a picture of Olive and Ernie, side by side, with my sister Deb's, mother-in-law telling Olive to look at the camera.
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