Writing about myself on my family history blog somehow feels self-indulgent. I realize that I manage to show up in all of my family history, but I shy away from tackling my own story directly.
Well, I'll just skip the boring parts
Chapters one, two, three
And get to the place where you can read my face
And my biography
Someday I plan to include myself more directly in my family history; when I do, a significant part of the narrative will talk about music. My degree is a Bachelor of Science in vocal performance from Towson University (Class of 2020 - but I started in 1990!) If you’ve followed Mightier Acorns for any amount of time, you have probably noticed musical references throughout - whether I was talking about my grandmother’s famous neighbor in “Famous Playmates” or using The Music Man to bring some color to “The Ballad of Mrs. Steele.”
But I don’t expect whatever I end up writing in my biography to top Paul Simon for dry, succinct wit:
Here I am, I'm eleven months old
Dangling from my daddy's knee
There I go, it's my graduation
I'm picking up a bogus degree
Very funny, Paul. It is a “B.S. Music degree” but it is also legitimate!
I love finding places where my passions overlap, but I rarely run across music that tackles the subject of genealogy directly. More often, a song happens to be about a specific family or relationship. This song reminded me to include myself in the story and while it is also not directly about family history, that’s the meaning I took from it.
Simon’s words spoke to my ambivalence about telling my own story in the context of the rest of my family. I have told parts of my story in my 2016 memoir novel “Tad’s Happy Funtime” but that only talks about my life until about 2005, and somehow, I keep getting older and accumulating more stories. Something is daunting about collecting the rest of them.
I am walking up the face of the mountain
Counting every step I climb
Remembering the names of the constellations
Forgotten is a long, long time
I love how the two middle stanzas of this song use poetic imagery to gloss over the meat and potatoes of the singer’s story. One verse to give you a taste of his wanderlust; one to reminisce about his first love, and to leave you with a sense of his longing for every moment that has passed. There are no hard facts here to get in the way of a good story.
Most biographies are the opposite of that. I write about people I never knew based on the dry facts I get from the census. Now and then I catch a glimpse of sentiment in an obituary or a letter home from war, and just that glimpse allows me to get a sense of the life of the person. Those are the moments that feel like snatches from a song, and I’m delighted when they end up in the work I do.
That’s me
I’m in the valley of twilight
Now I’m on the continental shelf
That’s me—
I’m answering a question
I am asking of myself
That’s me
That’s me
Indirectly, all of it is me. I just have to figure out which of my memories I can trust - which is family history in a nutshell.
I’m always looking for musical suggestions. Let me know if you have favorite musical references to genealogy and family history. (And if you drop a recommendation here, don’t be stingy with the links!)
Hey there! I started publishing my own memoir on Substack back in February. I cover every year of my life (beginning in 1963) via key events and my own top ten songs from each year. https://danpal.substack.com/s/the-playlist-of-my-life-a-top-ten?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=menu I'm up to 2007 which I am working on now. It's been quite a journey! It may be a bit self-indulgent but I've been doing it because I need to let these stories out AND explain why I've liked the music I've liked. I also think associating memory with songs is a great way to keep that memory strong! Would love to hear your story related to music too! Feel free to reach out if you want to share your own thoughts/concerns about this process.