Monday, May 10, 2010

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

My thoughts shift to Poland. My only connection to the country is my Grandmother. She was the youngest of many children and the only one that was not born in Poland. She passed away when I was 13 and she is the only person that I have been close to that has died. I asked her about her family several times but she always refused to talk about it. I know she could speak Polish but I never heard her utter a word of it. She was a pensive and mysterious woman. As the years go by and my memories of her begin to fade there are a few things that always remind me of her. She would often sing an old song to her grandchildren called “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” It was written in 1918 and its sad song about watching bubbles floating away. It seems like a fitting song for a devout Catholic woman who, though full of love for her family seemed (at least through the eyes of a child) to possess an inner sadness that was locked tightly and neatly away. The chorus to the song is:

I’m forever blowing bubbles,

Pretty bubbles in the air.

They climb so high,

Nearly reach the sky,

Then like my dreams,

They fade and die.

Fortunes always hiding,

I’ve looked everywhere.

I’m forever blowing bubbles,

Pretty bubbles in the air.

The song has been recorded many times but I am fond of the version by Vera Lynn, which is 3 minutes and 29 seconds in length. For my performance tonight I will wash my mouth out with soap and then attempt to silently blow bubbles for 3 minutes and 29 seconds as timed by my wrist watch.

I would like to dedicate my first performance in Poland, on what would be Mother’s Day in the United States, to the loving memory of my grandmother Helen Marie. Your grandchildren still whistle the song...

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