So Long, Farewell

So long, farewell

There's a joyous sort of ringing from the clock in the hall

And the bells in the steeple too

And in the living room

An absurd little bird is popping out to say, "Cuckoo"

(Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo)

Excitedly, we tell you

(Cuckoo)

It is time for us to say, "Good bye" 

to VA

(Cuckoo, cuckoo)

So long, farewell, have a blessed day

(I’m thrilled to leave, explore and move away)

Hooray, gothan dag, hasta luego, ciao

(Adieu, adieu to Ed and Tom and Mary)

Adeus, namaste, au revoir, auf wiedersehen

(I can’t wait to leave and taste a new pale ale)

G’Day, slán, ma’a salama, good bye

(I forge and climb and sing a, "Goodbye, goodbye")

I'm glad to go, I cannot tell a lie

I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

The season has changed and so must I

So long farewell, auf wiedersehen, good bye

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

These are not the original words as you might be able to tell, I tweaked them a little to say my goodbyes. 

The Sound of Music is one of my favorite musicals with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. It was turned into a Broadway production in 1959 (The Sound of Music - Wikipedia). The Sound of Music was adapted as a 1965 film musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer available at the theater. The movie was first aired on TV on Sunday, February 29, 1976. (Five things to know about ‘The Sound of Music’ on TV - Newsday)

Do I remember seeing it when I was 5 years old? I want to say yes, I really want to say yes. As a child I remember watching TV only on Sunday nights, mostly Disney but special viewings of movies like this one too. My dad would make popcorn! 

This was an event for me, dad did not do many things with us but Sunday was ours. He would pull out the West Bend 6 Quart Electric Dome Popcorn Popper, I would add the oil, he, the kernels, he would turn it on.

West Bend 6 Qt Electric Dome Popcorn Popper

The metal spinner would spin and the oil would smooth out, covering the base and lifting the Orville Redenbacher popcorn kernels as it spun so they did not stick and burn. Steam would rise around the holes in the top outside of the plastic round lid. The smell causing my mouth to water. The popping, OH the popping of each kernel as I waited in anticipation.

Plastic Wooden Bowls

Mom was melting butter on the stove and a sibling, sorry I was too self absorbed in the popping to know which one, was getting out the popcorn dishes. Dad would unplug the popper and flip it over so the popped kernels would be in the top of the yellow dome. Mom would pour the butter over it as dad salted and stirred. I would eat the ones that jumped out of the lid as they mixed. The bowls would be filled, we would take our places in the living room, and the magic of TV would begin.

The cuckoo clock hanging on the living room wall would chime the hour, the Sound of Music was about to begin, and I would remember my cousin Maureen and her adventures in Germany. She brought the clock back with her when she taught at a DOD school and she presented it as a gift to my parents. I still hear the cuckoo, cuckoo to this day. I had it hanging on my dining room wall until this week.

I remember being carried to bed but do not remember the ending of the musical. It would be years later that I watched it in its entirety but I remember. I remember the love on a Sunday night. I remember the love of a family with numerous kids, just like mine. I remember learning and loving to sing, Do, Re, Mi. I remember the lyrics to “So Long, Farewell” and I have sung them in my life so many times, for so many different reasons. It is a song of farewell to the end of a night, to the end of an adventure, to the end of a life. 

I bid fare thee well to Virginia, to the friends I have made here, to the family I say, “see ya soon” to, to the house that kept me warm and busy, and to a stage of my life that I needed yet am now happy to let go. Let the next adventure begin how and when it is ready and I will enjoy each path, each twist and turn on the unrevealed journey yet to unfold.