Sing, Sing, Sing

My last post got my most views so far, much to my embarrassment. It was written on my phone instead of in a document like my other posts. As a result, it was full of typos and grammatical errors. I hope that any new readers didn’t judge me by those mistakes. I’ll do better, I promise!

Anyway, I edited the last post so it’s more to my satisfaction. If you were unable to get through the garbage writing of my last entry, please give it another try. Now on to today’s post:

I grew up in northern New Jersey (North Jersey is the preferred nomenclature), a scant eleven mile drive to the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan. That means that pretty much all of our television and radio stations came from New York City. Not all of them, though. We had a local PBS station based in Montclair, and channel 9 (WWOR) based in Secaucus. I never watched channel 9, unless I was too sick to go to school. Then my mom would drive me across town to Nanny and Auntie’s apartment.

Nanny and Auntie raised my mom and my Aunt Lorraine after my grandfather Jacob died in the Battle of the Bulge. Jacob had emigrated from Germany to the United States, started a family, and went to Europe to fight for his new country against his old country. My memory is a bit hazy, but I don’t think he was a soldier; he was a bridge builder.

When Jacob went off to war, Auntie (my mom’s aunt) moved in with Nanny (my grandmother) to help her raise the kids. Forty-something years later, they still lived together in a one bedroom apartment across town from us. That’s where my sisters and I would go when my parents went out at night, and where we spent our sick days. Nanny and Auntie would make us toast and tea, and we’d watch TV.

Nanny and Auntie watched channel 9, and legitimately the only thing I remember about it was a weatherman named Lloyd Lindsay Young, who was extremely loud. Nanny would also watch the painting shows on PBS. and would often paint along. She didn’t watch Bob Ross, though. Her personal favorite was a guy that we all referred to as “The Crazy German painter.” We had several of her paintings at home; three of them on the wall as you walked up the stairs. The tops of their frames were popular spots for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs. When we were preparing to sell the house after my dad’s passing, I made sure to take my favorite one.

Back to the point, the rest of our channels were based out of New York City, which meant one thing: commercials for Broadway shows. Also, commercials for one particular hotel in the Broadway district. Where are my Milford Plaza fans at? The commercial featured people dressed as bellboys and various other hotel staff singing and dancing to “The Lullaby of Broadway.” I know many people who believed the song originated from that commercial well into their adulthood.

The commercials for Broadway shows were pretty much unavoidable during my childhood. They even played during kids programming. Shows like 42^nd Street, Cats, Starlight Express. and The King and I were heavily advertised back in the ‘80s. But there was one particular musical that had daily commercials when I was extremely young: Me and My Girl. For those of you unfamiliar, it’s a show about a cockney man and features the song Leaning On A Lamppost, a cover of which was a popular song for Herman’s Hermits in the ‘60s. The song also played in the commercial.

Well, it seems that my mom would often discover me playing, or walking through the house belting out that song in my best cockney accent. “Oi’m leenin on a lamppost at the co’nah of a street in case a certain lit-oo lady coomes boy. Oh me, oh my, I hope the lit-oo lady coomes boy…’ She thought it was the cutest frickin’ thing in the world and would make me perform it for the neighbors and any guests we might receive.

It wasn’t the only song she made me perform. There was also a song that went “Oh, I love to eat those mousies, Mousies what I love to eat. Bite they little heads off, And nibble on they tiny feet.” I have absolutely no idea where that song was from; I just remember singing it for many. many people when I was three or four years old. If you have any idea of the origin of the song, please let me know. I’ve already reached my Google limit for the month.

As the youngest of three siblings, I naturally got most of the attention of my parents, particularly from my mom. What I guess she didn’t realize is that she was conditioning me to expect everyone’s attention, not just hers. For those of you who know me… it explains an awful lot, doesn’t it? I’ve always been a guy who will do just about anything to get people’s eyes on me. And in fact, most of my stories are about me doing exactly that, usually to my own detriment.

But her support and encouragement led me to a life of performing. I had solos in chorus in 5^th, 6^th, 8^th, and 10^th grades. I performed in musicals in high school and well beyond. I went to karaoke several times a week for much of my twenties and thirties, and even got a job doing it. Out of the countless times I have sang in front of people, I’ve only had stage fright once, and I had a very good reason for that. But that’s another story for another time. The rest of the time? No nerves, just excitement. Because I was literally raised to perform in front of others.