BLASTS FROM THE PAST (OR POPULAR SONGS IN THE 1940S)

“Don’t go nowhere. What do I care?” I grew up in the 1940s (mostly after the war) and well remember the popular tunes that filled movies and radio programs (remember, before TV; O). One of the dominant male singing groups was the Mills Brothers. The classic hit I remember most easily is “Lazy River.” Here’s how it goes:

“Up the Lazy River in the noonday sun

The lazy, lazy river where we can loaf along

Blue skies up above, everyone’s in love,

Up the lazy river, how happy we will be, Up the lazy river with me”.

      Then there were the “Andrew Sisters” with their “Rum and Coca-Cola”: 

“All night long, make tropic love; next day, sit in the hot sun and cool off. Both mother and daughter, workin’ for the Yankee dollar,” along with their “G.I. Jive, man alive.”

     My own favorite singer was Louie Armstrong with his classic “Blueberry Hill”:

“Come climb the hill with me babe, we’ll see what we shall see;

I’ll bring my horn with me, I’ll be with you where berries are blue.

Each afternoon we’ll go, higher than the moon we’ll go.”

And to your weddin’ in June we’ll go, bop, bop, bop.”

     A song that captures all the aspects of the love songs of those days was “That Old Black 

“Magic Called Love” by Billy Daniels. “Down and down I go, all around I go. In a spin, lovin’ the” 

Pin, I’m in, under that old Black Magic called “Love.” I should stay away, but what can I do? 

I hear your name, and I’m aflame with such a desire that only your kiss will put out the fire.  

Perhaps the funkiest tune I remember is “Down the Road a Piece”:

“Man, I’d sure like to latch on to some of that Boogie Woogie tonight. You mean some of that 

“Fast Boogie Woogie”? Yeah, that’s what I mean. Well, if you want to hear the Boogie then I 

Know the place. It’s just an old piano and a knockout base. The drummer’s a guy they call 

“Eight Beat Mac”, if you remember “Darkin’ and Beat Me Daddy Slack”. Man, it’s better than 

Chicken fried in bacon grease. Come along with me, boy. It’s just down the road, down the road a piece. During the war, this song was very popular: “Over there, over there, send the word, “The Yanks are comin’, the Yanks are comin’ over there, and we won’t be coming back until it’s over over there.’” 

Perhaps my very favorite song from that era was Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’”. 

I’m saving all my love for you. Don’t go nowhere. What do I care? I’ve never had a date. I’m home. 

Every night by 8, just me and my radio. I ain’t misbehavin’, savin’ all my love for you.” 

The best song to jitterbug to way back then, before “rock and roll,” was surely “Sugar Blues”: 

“Just give me the old “sugar blues,” give me that low-down melody. You can have your Saint Lou,” 

Your b-bobbin’ too. I love the pep and the rhythm of that refrain. Let me stand here with the 

brass section risin’, ‘cause it’s a chance to do some real harmonizing when they play the “Sugar” 

Blues.” It wasn’t “frantic” nor “hoppin”, but just smooth movin’ couples slidin’ and glidin’ across 

the floor together in sync with the music.  

Here is a link to Jerry’s Playlist:

IN HONOR OF MY MANY SPECIAL STUDENT FRIENDS

At Seattle Pacific College between 1960 and 1964, I was blessed with an amazing group of young students during my first teaching job. There were seven young men who majored in philosophy while I was teaching there and excelled in their graduate studies thereafter. They gave me a good start, and I am ever so grateful to each of them. Some are still my friends. They have all distinguished themselves as scholars and teachers in their own right.

Warren Barnes graduated from San Anselmo Theological Seminary and the University of California, Sacramento, and then spent many years working with the Farm Workers Association of California.

Dale Cannon earned his Ph.D. from Duke University and is now retired after many years of teaching at the University of Western Oregon.

Roger Dexter, Ph.D. from Yale University, spent several years teaching at Portland State University and died at an early age while still teaching there.

Rex Hollowell earned a master’s in philosophy from the University of Washington and taught at Spokane Falls Community College for many years.  

James Matthews earned a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and taught for many years at various colleges across the Southwest.

James Watson began his Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago, but due to eye difficulties, he switched to a career with the Boy Scouts of America in the Pacific Northwest.

Del Wisdom had to cut short his doctoral studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara to assume ownership of his aunt’s farm in eastern Washington, which he brought to national attention for Bird’s Eye peas and other famous products.

        At Southwestern at Memphis in the late 1960s, I taught Larry Churchill, who later earned a doctorate at Duke University and taught there for many years, with several stints at the University of North Carolina. I also taught Harmon Wray there before he studied at Duke and Vanderbilt while earning his master’s degree. I also taught Gay Welch, who studied at Vanderbilt, earning her Ph.D. before becoming a dean of the Divinity School. My Southwestern student Robert Orr also earned his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt. 

In the early 1970s at Florida Presbyterian, later Eckerd College, I taught several students who went on to distinguish themselves by earning graduate degrees. Malcom Munson earned his doctorate at Vanderbilt University, and Kathy Meacham completed her Ph.D. at Temple. 

David Jenkins earned his Ph.D. from Loyola University and later another from Uppsala University in Sweden. He taught at several American colleges before joining the University of Helsinki in Finland. Gary Dunbar earned his doctorate in psychobiology from Clark University and has been a distinguished professor of neuroscience at Central Michigan University for years. 

      In the 1980s, at Eastern College near Philadelphia, several of my students earned master’s degrees from nearby theological schools, including Michael Riley, Dennis O’Neill, and Brian Hamilton. David Ray earned his graduate degree in religion from Western Kentucky University and another in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. He served for years as the Vice President of CARE, USA. Mari Sorri earned her first master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and a second from Skidmore College in conjunction with The College of Saint Rose. She also earned an ABD (all but dissertation) from Boston University. 

I spent two years teaching at Barrington College in Rhode Island, where Dorothy Rogers began her undergraduate studies. After briefly transferring to Gordon College, she went on to earn her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Boston University. She has now served as a Graduate Dean at Montclair State in New Jersey for several years.

Finally, when I taught in my final years as a full-time professor at The College of Saint Rose in the 1990s, I had Tim Doherty, Brendan Lalor, and Joe Carcasola as undergraduate students. Joe earned a master’s degree from RPI in Troy, while Brendan and Tim earned their doctorates from The State University of New York at Albany. All three have gone on to teach at colleges in the Upstate region of the country. Tim has headed a refugee center in Albany for many years.

Now, the delightful thing about this list of former students is that I have been and still am in contact with them over the years. Indeed, several of them continue to keep in touch by participating in my weekly seminar on various philosophical topics and thinkers. I am, indeed, surely the luckiest fellow in all academia. I am, of all people, the most grateful!!