Monday, April 18, 2011

Monday Morning Blues; Fifteen Cents

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When I was a kid, my dad would sometimes takes us all with him when he'd go out shoeing horses for the day. We'd all pile into the truck and as we headed down the back roads of Yarmouth, my dad's favorite music was Doc Watson latest album.

The first song would always have my sisters and me laughing, as we sang along, then cheered for dad to rewind the tape and play it again!

I'm not even sure if we knew why it was funny or if we just knew that it was funny, but more than twenty years later, thought I still find the same lines funny, it seems to be funny also on an other level... I never imagined I would actually relate on a more personally level!

As far as mother-in-laws go, EunBong's pretty sure she's hit the jack-pot with my mom. Just about the only stress she has is from her own expectations of how a Korean daughter-in-law must be, none of which my mom has any expectations of.

The flip side is that learning to deal with having Korean in-laws and all the baggage I never cared to know about before I married into Korea. It's been a major part of my practice learning to be able to have a positive relationship with them. I'm successful maybe half the time.

To be fair, there is a lot less stress being a son-in-law in Korea than a daughter-in-law. I'm not expected to be their servant, Both of EunBong's friends who were married recently have called EunBong in tears saying if they didn't have babies already they would run away because of their mother-in-law's. My difficulties come down to mostly culture and generation. What I've been dealing with the last couple of years is these differences being aggravated by how a baby should be raised. As much as I'd love to vent about it, I'll just say, it's been a worthy opponent for my practice to be tested against!

Luckily, EunBong has been somewhere in the middle, more willing than the rest of us to give way. Maybe some of you will agree, the hardest part has been to let myself see when maybe I'm not the one who's always right! haha!

Fifteen Cents

I left my home in Tennessee,
and I thought I'd learn to travel,
But then I met a pretty little gal
And soon we played the devil

I loved that gal and she loved me
And I thought we'd live together
But then we tied that fatal knot
And now I'm gone forever.

Gimme back my fifteen cents,
Gimme back my money;
Gimme back my fifteen cents
And I'll go home to mammy.

T'was fifteen cents for the preacher man
A dollar for the paper,
Then dear old mother-in-law moved in
And, Lordy, what a caper!

I fiddled a tune for her one day
And she called me a joker
Then that old sow got mad at me
And hit me with a poker.

Gimme back my fifteen cents,
Gimme back my money;
Gimme back my fifteen cents
And I'll go home to mammy.

I worked in town and I worked on the farm,
But there's no way t'suit'em
They're both so dad-burn mean t'me
Somebody oughta shoot 'em.

I'm tired of looking at my mother-in-law
I'd like t'see m'Granny,
Gonna leave the state of Arkansas
And go back home t'Mammy!

Gimme back my fifteen cents,
Gimme back my money;
Gimme back my fifteen cents
And I'll go home to mammy.

1 comment:

  1. Simply great by all accounts, Joseph!! And thank EunBong for her enduring affection for me, which is definitely reciprocated. "Love heart change everything!"

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