Time has arrived to wind this series down, I added a couple songs and extended the series unintentionally. Inspiring and Empowered women to be shared and enough talking about myself (ha!) for a few weeks. I've only briefly shared about these two songs before and wanted to write about them for the series.
When I was a little girl, my Dad rocked me to sleep every night in our white rocking chair. He would hold us tightly and sing two songs, after telling us the story of ''Orangeylocks and the Three Purple Bears'' his version of Goldilocks. Every night, it was the same three songs over and over, the standard ''Rock-a-bye Baby'' and then two of his favorites.
The first song was only a few bars, or so I remember. My aunts always say, ''the girls fell asleep out of self defense'' so he may have sang more and I don't remember because I quickly fell asleep. The first bar is always in my head, ''I hear the whipporwhills whispering above, Tammy, Tammy, Tammy's in love'' he would sing the theme song from ''Tammy'' to us every night.
I never watched the Tammy movies until a few years ago.I finally found them on TMC and stayed up all night watching them all. I love those movies but moreso I love the song because it reminds me of being rocked to sleep every night.
The signature rocking song was one that I am sure he grew up hearing as well. My Gramps had a love of Gene Autry, he was his hero and he loved all things associated with Gene. So this song reminds me of both Dad and Gramps. Everynight this was the sign off song, if I didn't fall asleep to Tammy, this was the song I heard. ''From this valley they say you're going, I will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile''
It was such an important song, it is the song he danced with my sister Carrie to at her first wedding. There wasn't a dry eye in the room including Dad's because he had no clue she had picked that song to dance to. It was a wonderful moment that we will remember forever.
"But remember the Red River Valley and the cowboy who loved you so true''
So as I have now put you all to sleep, I hope you've enjoyed the trip down memory lane with me and learning more about my life. This series is something I look forward to all year long and is truly something that has helped me overcome my pre-birthday anxiety. Looking forward to the second installment in the inspiring women series on the 28th.
