Many years ago I purchased an album, vinyl, which is still the best way to listen to recorded music, but I can’t play records any longer. The album was called “Matters of the Heart” and the singer-songwriter was Bob Bennett. There are two songs on the album that touch me more than the others. The first is Mountain Cathedrals, and the second is named 1951. That song is about Bob’s parents. It is a tear-jerker I guess if you had parents like his. I did, and every time I hear the song, I think of my Mom and Dad and so with them in mind, I have borrowed Bob’s song and made a few changes to the lyrics, just a few. Here is his song and below that, you will see the changes I made. So give a listen and then give it a read.

Mom and Dad: I love you both and I hope you continue to have the same great peace and love you have had for the 71 years you have been man and wife.

Well Daddy was an honest, hard-working man

With great eyesight and calloused hands

He married young and he made his stand
In 1952

Well it was bell-bottom pants and Navy beans
Military pay and collard greens
But he treated Mama just like a queen
In 1952

In Nineteen-Hundred and Fifty-Two
Both of them young and lovers true

There were war clouds in the skies

but stars in their eyes in 1952
She called him "Clay" and he called her "Sue'"
In 1952

Well sometimes I'd hear my Daddy sigh
Mama would cry on his shoulder
Whenever I would ask them why
They'd say "You'll know when you're older"

Well Daddy would leave for sea in the Spring
they would pray his safe return in the Fall
I've seen the pictures, I've seen them all
Even on their knees they looked so tall
In 1952

In Nineteen-Hundred and Fifty-two
Both of them young and lovers true
There were war clouds in the skies
But stars in their eyes in 1952
She called him "Clay" and he called her "Sue'"
In 1952
In 1952

Derrick.

Here is a little bonus for you folks that have read all the way down to here.