As a part of my 2018 initiative to write more, I'm presenting this mini-rant/dissertation or reading of the song Puff the Magic Dragon. Why? Well, about a year ago one of my older teaching friends mentioned the song on a Facebook post. To this day people still think it has something to do with pot smoking or 'puffing the magic dragon' if you will, but they would be wrong. It's easy to see why people think this way as the song comes from that hippy-dippy 60's era--according the Wikipedia entry it was written in '59, recorded in '62 and the popular release by folk group Peter, Paul and Mary was in '63--when the drug culture was coming around, but it was never about that. A stronger argument could be made about one HR PuffnStuf, but we'll save that for another entry. Puff is actually a song about growing up and how we sometimes lose our imagination and childhood wonder...and on an even deeper level, how we lose people that we care about as we get older. It's pretty deep for what is looked at as a kid's song--is it still a kid's song BTW? The most popular kids songs I hear to day are godawful covers of pop music. Was the world waiting the Kidz Bop version of Ke$ha's latest hit? Again, that's for another day, but let's get on with my personal take on Puff.
As I mentioned before the song was written and originally released many years ago. It's much older than I thought. However, by the time I came around in 1974, the song had become a standard for kids. It may be hard for some people to remember such things today, but back then compilation albums would be advertised on TV. Among the Freedom Rocks and Hey Love compilations--No, my brother, you have to buy your own--you would also find lots of kids songs and nursery rhymes. These inevitably made the elementary school circuit, and I remember hearing Puff the Magic Dragon, among others, very often. This resurgence in popularity eventually led to a cartoon of some acclaim back then with the same kind of annual showing you expected from Charlie Brown and the Grinch, but sadly, as far as I can tell, it only exists as YouTube nostalgia today. As a kid, I never caught on to anything particularly sad about the song...maybe a little in the way it was performed, but I liked hearing about the dragon and all the adventures. Little did I know how sad the song was and how sad it would yet be.
When I had a little age on me--actually didn't start to hit me until mid-20's/early 30's though I believe this epiphany could come around to anyone at any time after graduating from high school--I started to realize that I was Jackie Paper in the song. I was getting older, and yes, even I was moving on. I had held on to my youthful joys for so long--and I still try to in as much as I can--but what was "cute"in my early 20's with excessive rapidness started to become more and more pathetic the closer I got to 30. Dragons live forever, but we humans do not--at least not while we're on this Earth. It took a good long while, but I got married. It wasn't long after that the new wife and I left my parents' home never to be their boarders again. It was a big thing. I'd left home a couple of times before to live with male friends as roommates, but those situations were never going to be permanent. I'd never even gone away for college like a lot of people do, but there at last at the ripe old age of 29 I'd taken my 23 year-old bride and began to seek my fame and fortune. The wife straightened me out. I really did start growing up--at least in as much as an anime lover with a weekly game of D&D can be said to have grow up. I eventually went back to university to become an English teacher. When I was about a year from earning my degree, my Mom and Dad moved in with us. Under the same roof again but more as roommates than anything. I graduated and ultimately decided to work as a teacher overseas, and once again I had to leave my parents--and for the first year, my wife--behind. That year as a single man--for all intents and purposes, except I didn't cheat--was about as much independence as I'd ever faced. It was a year in Taiwan as a rookie teacher. My childhood and even young adulthood finished up then. I went home after the first year out there, found my current placement in the UAE, collected my wife and the pair of us were off again. I lost my Dad before the year was out. He was only 65. All my new friends and colleagues agreed that it was an untimely passing nowadays. I don't know about all that. There aren't many ball teams looking for 65 year-old center-fielders. He had lived a fairly long and at least somewhat fulfilled life. He never ran off or abandoned his family until the day he died, but it would be a lie to say it wasn't a financial struggle for him throughout, and his own childhood was far from ideal. I love that rascal and still miss him. I hope he knows it. Seven years have rapidly passed since then. My mom's still out there living in the house my wife and I are still paying for--one which I only lived in for one year--as best as she can. She too is a lot like Puff in his cave because the nest is very much empty. My dad has now long passed, my brother and his wife have moved far away, and of course we're half a world away and don't get to visit nearly as much as we should. It really is a sad song to hear when you're Jackie Paper...
...But wait there's more...It's even sadder when you realize you aren't Jackie Paper anymore. You're Puff! Could it be any more depressing? At least I caught on quick. I have a daughter who is now three years old...She's Jackie...she really does bring me bits of strings and other 'fancy stuff', but there's going to be a time when she won't do that anymore. We're not sure if we will try to have any more kids, but even if we do, that day will come for them too. So, I make it a point to pay close attention to her. I try my best to limit the time I spend on doing things that aren't fun. In as much as I can, I spoil her hoping not to turn her into a brat. I want her to keep visiting Kings and Queens with me as long as she can...and of course her mother feels the same way. But, is there any hope in the song? One that actually can make me tear up even thinking about it like I am now.
Yes, with a but...according to Wikipedia there was one more verse in the poem where Puff finds a new friend to play with. It's been lost to time, but it's good to know that it was there. In most of the later performances by Peter, Paul and Mary the song remains as written, but for the last chorus. Instead of saying Puff lived by the sea and frolicked in the Autumn mist...it is changed to lives and frolics. That makes a big difference. Sure he was sad for a while, but he was able to move on. I like that version better. It works that way for me too. Although we don't get to visit nearly as much as we would like, my daughter is always glad to see her Nana and talk to her on the phone or with Skype. It would have been a better story if PopPop would have lived long enough to have met his granddaughter, but one of these days we'll all be living by the sea and frolicking in Autumn mist.
As I mentioned before the song was written and originally released many years ago. It's much older than I thought. However, by the time I came around in 1974, the song had become a standard for kids. It may be hard for some people to remember such things today, but back then compilation albums would be advertised on TV. Among the Freedom Rocks and Hey Love compilations--No, my brother, you have to buy your own--you would also find lots of kids songs and nursery rhymes. These inevitably made the elementary school circuit, and I remember hearing Puff the Magic Dragon, among others, very often. This resurgence in popularity eventually led to a cartoon of some acclaim back then with the same kind of annual showing you expected from Charlie Brown and the Grinch, but sadly, as far as I can tell, it only exists as YouTube nostalgia today. As a kid, I never caught on to anything particularly sad about the song...maybe a little in the way it was performed, but I liked hearing about the dragon and all the adventures. Little did I know how sad the song was and how sad it would yet be.
When I had a little age on me--actually didn't start to hit me until mid-20's/early 30's though I believe this epiphany could come around to anyone at any time after graduating from high school--I started to realize that I was Jackie Paper in the song. I was getting older, and yes, even I was moving on. I had held on to my youthful joys for so long--and I still try to in as much as I can--but what was "cute"in my early 20's with excessive rapidness started to become more and more pathetic the closer I got to 30. Dragons live forever, but we humans do not--at least not while we're on this Earth. It took a good long while, but I got married. It wasn't long after that the new wife and I left my parents' home never to be their boarders again. It was a big thing. I'd left home a couple of times before to live with male friends as roommates, but those situations were never going to be permanent. I'd never even gone away for college like a lot of people do, but there at last at the ripe old age of 29 I'd taken my 23 year-old bride and began to seek my fame and fortune. The wife straightened me out. I really did start growing up--at least in as much as an anime lover with a weekly game of D&D can be said to have grow up. I eventually went back to university to become an English teacher. When I was about a year from earning my degree, my Mom and Dad moved in with us. Under the same roof again but more as roommates than anything. I graduated and ultimately decided to work as a teacher overseas, and once again I had to leave my parents--and for the first year, my wife--behind. That year as a single man--for all intents and purposes, except I didn't cheat--was about as much independence as I'd ever faced. It was a year in Taiwan as a rookie teacher. My childhood and even young adulthood finished up then. I went home after the first year out there, found my current placement in the UAE, collected my wife and the pair of us were off again. I lost my Dad before the year was out. He was only 65. All my new friends and colleagues agreed that it was an untimely passing nowadays. I don't know about all that. There aren't many ball teams looking for 65 year-old center-fielders. He had lived a fairly long and at least somewhat fulfilled life. He never ran off or abandoned his family until the day he died, but it would be a lie to say it wasn't a financial struggle for him throughout, and his own childhood was far from ideal. I love that rascal and still miss him. I hope he knows it. Seven years have rapidly passed since then. My mom's still out there living in the house my wife and I are still paying for--one which I only lived in for one year--as best as she can. She too is a lot like Puff in his cave because the nest is very much empty. My dad has now long passed, my brother and his wife have moved far away, and of course we're half a world away and don't get to visit nearly as much as we should. It really is a sad song to hear when you're Jackie Paper...
...But wait there's more...It's even sadder when you realize you aren't Jackie Paper anymore. You're Puff! Could it be any more depressing? At least I caught on quick. I have a daughter who is now three years old...She's Jackie...she really does bring me bits of strings and other 'fancy stuff', but there's going to be a time when she won't do that anymore. We're not sure if we will try to have any more kids, but even if we do, that day will come for them too. So, I make it a point to pay close attention to her. I try my best to limit the time I spend on doing things that aren't fun. In as much as I can, I spoil her hoping not to turn her into a brat. I want her to keep visiting Kings and Queens with me as long as she can...and of course her mother feels the same way. But, is there any hope in the song? One that actually can make me tear up even thinking about it like I am now.
Yes, with a but...according to Wikipedia there was one more verse in the poem where Puff finds a new friend to play with. It's been lost to time, but it's good to know that it was there. In most of the later performances by Peter, Paul and Mary the song remains as written, but for the last chorus. Instead of saying Puff lived by the sea and frolicked in the Autumn mist...it is changed to lives and frolics. That makes a big difference. Sure he was sad for a while, but he was able to move on. I like that version better. It works that way for me too. Although we don't get to visit nearly as much as we would like, my daughter is always glad to see her Nana and talk to her on the phone or with Skype. It would have been a better story if PopPop would have lived long enough to have met his granddaughter, but one of these days we'll all be living by the sea and frolicking in Autumn mist.
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