I was writing an autumn poem for our local nature reserve newsletter this morning describing family trips I remember as a kid.
I grew up in Kansas City and each autumn we would take old Highway 24 out through Independence all the way to the Waverly bridge that took the old road North of the Missouri River. I had Campbell, Slusher, and Bates relatives all along the route and we stopped at produce stands along the way as we went to visit the clan.
When we went through Dover, MO (between Lexington and Waverly) I would recall "Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet", Percy Wenrich’s old song with Stanley Murphy’s lyrics and I looked up the words to fit into my rhyme. I had forgotten the introductory verses and was pleased to find Silas hitching up the old shay for his wife Miranda (sitting of course on the Veranda) so they could go up to Dover on their golden wedding day. (that Dover was down by Joplin, Missouri I understand.)
So many of the old Tin Pan Alley songs have come down to us as refrains and the verses have been long lost. Max Morath reminded me that introductory verses were more or less mandatory in the early days of song writing from Stephen Foster repetitions within his verses on to World War II. The verses set up the refrains until only the catchy lyrics and melodies of those choruses were remembered. Thus, we have come to neglect Miranda’s meltdown over Silas forgetting the
