Home
for Christmas in Song
Thomas
Wolfe once proclaimed, “You can’t go home again.” And, to be
frank, I’ve always felt that he was mistaken. If you’ve ever
logged on to my site, you can plainly read my thoughts on that
matter.
In
2005, Jon Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles teamed up together for a
megahit duet, where they asked my very question, “Who says you
can’t go home?”
I
was relieved to learn that others felt like I do in that regard.
Personally,
I’ve found the path to return there and I make a homecoming trip
multiple times per day during some holiday seasons. Even though my
journey may not be to the same physical structure in which I was
raised, I find myself often recalling fond memories of my two
earliest homes.
Locating
your home
As
we age, and as our original homes sometimes fall into disrepair, baby
boomers may find that the only way to get back home is through our
memories. This phenomenon can take place during any period, but might
be more meaningful during this holiday time of the year.
There
is a good chance that your physical home structure may not even stand
today. Society has become more mobile and some of us may have lived
in more than just a couple of different homes. Sad, too, is the fact
that not everyone’s early home life might be worth remembering. For
those, I honestly feel sorry.
I
guess I was blessed to have a great home life, no matter where I
lived. And I’m willing to wager that most of you have some place,
somewhere, of which you have many precious recollections of your
place called home. And I will also bet that you, too, feel that you
can indeed return there, anytime you wish.
No
shortage of home in song
According
to the words written in a poem by Brewster Higley and later put to
music by Daniel E. Kelley, the cowboys in the West during the 1870’s
believed that their home was “on the range.”
The
Beach Boys, in the hit song “Sloop John B,” recalled home
in 1966 as a place to which they “want to go.” In fact, they
begged, “Let me go home.”
Rock
star Bruce Springsteen sang about his home in a song entitled “My
Hometown.”
Who
doesn’t know most of the lyrics in John Denver’s melody, “Country
roads, take me home”?
”The
old hometown looks the same as I step down from the train” was an
observation sung by Tom Jones in 1966. That tune still rings in my
mind as he sang “The Green, Green Grass of Home.”
In
1969 Joe South asked, “Don’t it make you wanna go home, now?
Don’t it make you wanna go home?”
Country
recording group Lonestar referred to home in their title and lyrics
as a place in which “I’m Already There.”
And
we’re reminded in the song “Small Town,” by John Cougar
Mellencamp, that our hometown doesn’t have to be a huge metropolis.
Home,
I’ve heard, “is where the heart is.” However, personal
perceptions of home are virtually limitless and as diverse as our
very genetic makeup.
But,
this is the Christmas Season...
And
the scratchy sound of a twelve-inch vinyl record playing on an old
Victrola, rotating under a worn needle, still makes me homesick.
Nostalgia abounds when I hear the Christmas favorite sung by Perry
Como in which he assures us “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the
Holidays.”
Perhaps
it’s the reference to our own State of Pennsylvania that strikes a
favorable chord as I hear the lyrics below:
”Oh,
there’s no place like home for the holidays,
'Cause
no matter how far away you roam,
When
you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze,
For
the holidays you can’t beat home sweet home!...
I
met a man who lives in Tennessee, and he was headin’ for
Pennsylvania
and some homemade pumpkin pie”
My
parents had one of those old-fashioned record players and Perry Como
was one of their favorite artists. I never dreamed I would miss that
old, non-stereo sound, but I must admit that I do.
Johnny
Mathis, another legend
And
how could any baby boomers not identify with what might be the most
sentimental home-centered Christmas carol of all time?
Recorded
by Bing Crosby in 1943, this song was re-recorded in my era by Johnny
Mathis. The theme was based on a soldier serving during the Second
World War who knew he would not be home for Christmas.
The
lyrics, “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams,”
might be the epitome of our train of thought during the Christmas
Season.
Wherever
you may be this Christmas, I sincerely hope that you, too, can find
your way back home. Whether it is a physical structure, a real
memory, or just a figment of your imagination, may you truly enjoy
your return home…and may you feel the true Christmas spirit, too,
for the entire season.
Author’s
Note: This will be my last regularly scheduled submission to the
papers as part of my column. The editors and publishers have
welcomed me to submit new stories now and then and, for that, I am
truly grateful. Feel free to drop me a line, if you desire, at
dpotchak2012@gmail.com
and have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.