Skip to main content

Shirley Goodness

I watched Boston Legal last night—a great show, by the way. There was a momentary play on words when one of the characters used "surely" and "Shirley" interchangeably to get a laugh. He got one from me because I did that a lot when I was a kid. Here's how:

When I was growing up, I traveled with the gang-like neighborhood kids in a pack from morning to night, but none of us really stepped out from behind our mothers to get to know each other until the age of six or so. Before that, all I can remember is being in the house with Mama or being babysat by the neighbor women. My mother got a job as a bookkeeper at a hardware store when I was in kindergarten, so I spent afternoons with people like Mrs. Hodsen, Mrs. Jeffrey, and Mrs. Mackey.

I called them all Mrs. Whatever because in those days children did not address adults by their first names. But I knew their names. I knew they were also known as Rita and Louise and Jan and Shirley.

It was during these same years that I was learning songs at church. We sang all the standard hymns like Rock of Ages and What A Friend We Have in Jesus. We also sang a hymn with a chorus that went like this:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days, all the days of my life.

Because pronouncing "surely" takes a bit of effort most people don't bother with, especially when they are singing, I was never quite sure what this song meant. I thought we might be singing about the neighbor lady who let me play in her house and take a nap on her sofa during the occasional afternoon.

Instead of calling her Mrs. Mackey, I started calling her Surely Goodness. She was charmed, and it stuck. You can listen to the hymn here. Tell me, if you were five years old, wouldn't you be confused, too?

Comments

dive said…
Hee hee. What a wonderful story, Robyn.
I'm still confused at forty-nine.
Hey ho.
he he, ahhh the thought of you taking a nap on their sofa. Sweet.
I recall going to a coffee with my Mum and telling the lady there "My Mum said your name is Mrs. Busybody. What does that mean?" Eek! We left pretty sharpish.
Anonymous said…
Kids say the darndest things!

Popular posts from this blog

Cindy Loo Who In October

What is it with people and Cindy Loo Who? Of my last one hundred blog hits, forty have been direct visits from regular readers, and fifteen have been as a result of people searching for "Cindy Loo Who," the little pixie from Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas . A couple of years ago, I posted an image of the original Seuss illustration as compared to the TV cartoon image, and for some reason, that post is bringing in the crowds, relatively. Maybe it's the weather. It isn't even November yet, and already we've had frost and have had to dust off our winter coats. When it gets cold like this, I start to think about Christmasy things like listening to Nat King Cole and decorating the tree. It's ironic because I am offended when retailers start pushing holiday stuff early, but I don't mind my own private celebrations. When my sister and I were much younger and still living with our parents, we would pick a day in July, close the curtains to darken the ...

Happy Birthday To...

Pope Leo IX (the Pope) JCF Bach (German composer) Jane Russell (of Gentlemen Prefer Blonds fame) Daniel Carter Beard (founder of the Boy Scouts of America) Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher) Maureen Stapleton (Academy Award winning actress) Mariette Hartley (who?) Prince William of Wales (the prince) but most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 45 years ago today, I was born in Alabama in a small town on the banks of the Tennessee River. Yesterday, someone asked me if my family has any birthday traditions. The answer is no. My family never cared very much, but I do remember a few birthday highlights. I was given a birthday party in the back yard when I was ten years old. Two years later, my sister got married on my birthday, so I was just a bit overlooked, although I did get a stuffed animal--it was a white Yorkshire terrier with an AM radio in its stomach. When I turned 20, a different sister took me to an outdoor performance of Dvorak's New World Sympho...