Songs in other languages
While our son Dan and his wife, Mikiyo, were visiting us for a few days, I was playing a few songs I enjoy on the piano. Mikiyo, who has a lovely soprano voice, was singing as I played “Die Lorelei.” She sang it in Japanese, and I usually sing the German words. Mikiyo said that her music class in Japan sang songs, and also listened to sections of classical music played for them to discuss. How nice! Also, she asked if I knew any Stephen Foster songs. I surely do and I play them frequently: “Old Black Joe,” “Old Folks At Home,” “My Old Kentucky Hone,” and “Massa’s In the Cold, Cold Ground” (my favorite of his.) Foster wrote both the words and the music. He was a remarkable man.
Among the songs I played was “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms,” an Irish tune, with words by Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Dan came downstairs to the piano and asked me how I knew “Fair Harvard,” his college song, and of course we had heard and sung the song often.
To my surprise, “Fair Harvard” is sung to the tune of the “Endearing Young Charms” song. We have a copy of the book, “Harvard University Songs.” It had belonged to my uncle, Dr. Winfred Overholser, also a Harvard graduate, and the first song in that book is “Fair Harvard.”
The introduction to the book says: “The compiler has tried to make a collection of the songs that are actually sung at Harvard by the Glee Club, by the crowds at the football games, and by the undergraduates and graduates.”
I also found in a book, “140 Folk Songs,” given to my sister, brother and me by our piano teacher, Ellen King Doten, the song Mikiyo and I were singing, “The Lorelei,” written in English, listing the composer Friedrich Silcher, and the translator, Nathan Haskell Dole. We pupils of Mrs. Doten went on Saturday mornings to her house on Fairmont Street, Portland, to attend the Listeners Music Club. We would have preferred, during the winter, to be skating at Adams Pond, on Highland Street, but our musical education came first, I guess. She was an excellent teacher.
I’m reading a 1909 Horatio Alger novel
I visited often in the Beacon Street, Portland, home of Barbara Campbell, a Deering High School friend and neighbor. Her father was the owner of Campbell’s Book Store on Congress Street, and their home was filled with books. When the bookcases were filled, more books were neatly stacked on the floor.
I was a bit shocked by that, but now it is happening in our house, in spite of the many bookcases we have. We love books, and often find some of interest to us at book and library sales.
Last week I discovered “Risen From the Ranks” by Horatio Alger Jr. I had taken two local newspapers and the Bridgton News to read in bed. But I started looking at the Alger book and read four chapters of it with great interest. I read a brief biography of the author in the book’s introduction, and then read more about him in the Britannica. I now must finish the book through Chapter XXXVI, its conclusion. The book is in excellent shape. The hero, Harry Walton, is pictured on the cover, paddling a red canoe.
Horatio Alger was born at Revere, Mass. in 1834. He was the son of a clergyman, was graduated from Harvard College in 1852, and from its Divinity School in 1860. He was pastor of the Unitarian Church at Brewster, Mass. 1862-66.
He next settled in New York, where he began drawing public attention to the condition and needs of street boys, mingling with them and gaining their confidence, and stimulated them to honest and useful living. At the suggestion of a New York social worker, he visited the Newsboys’ Lodging House, a home for foundlings and runaway boys. Not only did he come to use the home as a base of operations, but also he identified himself with the lodging house. For the next 30 years he became the benefactor, champion and hero to the boys of the institution.
With his first story, he won the hearts of boys everywhere. Of the 70 or more books that followed, over a million copies were sold during his lifetime.
He died at Natick, Mass. in 1899. The Britannica article said he was the most popular author in the U.S. in the last 30 years of the 19th century and without doubt, the most influential author of his generation.
I’m glad I found his novel, “Risen From the Ranks,” on the floor, among other books. Alger’s writing style is excellent. Also, I probably have a collector’s item in that 1909 book, in such good condition.
Munch on this recipe
Today’s recipe is from “Aspen Potpourri,” 1968, a collection of Aspen recipes and ideas. It was loaned to me by Barbara Bell, now living in Bristol. She had grown up on Long Island, N.Y., and moved later to Aspen, Col., to enjoy the skiing in that well-known resort.
The large book has many illustrations, including pictures of residents submitting their recipes, and lovely mountain scenes.
Trail Food
Grind together into large bowl
2 cups prunes
1 cut dates
1 cup coconut
1 cup walnuts
1 cup pecans
2 cups raisins
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup peanuts (optional)
Knead until well blended. Run through grinder again, with 2 teaspoons of rose hip concentrate. (I must check on rose hip. Where is it available?)
Divide into 6 parts. Roll each to 1-1/2 inches diameter, then roll in fine coconut. Wrap in wax paper, put in plastic bag and chill. Slice for serving or break off pieces when hiking, biking or skiing.
The lady who submitted this, Hilda Thurston, is pictured seated on a balcony, her right arm on the railing, with a snowy bush behind her and a mountain in the background. She is very attractive. The outline says, “Outdoor enthusiast Hilda bicycles every day from her home up Independence Pass to the Library where she works.”
I was pleased at our recent Presumpscot Grange meeting to have an auxiliary member, Betty Buff of Scarborough, mention reading Rambling recipes. Perhaps she will try this Trail Food recipe to take on one of the trips she and her husband, Darrell, enjoy.
I was also pleased to hear from Alden Bennett, an American Journal subscriber who lives in Pennsylvania. He wrote me that his wife, Ellie, enjoys the recipes, too, and also reads the Ramblings column.
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