Think back to a song you used to love as a child... now write about it.

I spent a lot of time with my Grandma as a child, and she loved to play the piano and sing. Mostly they were "parlor songs" from the late 1890s and early 1900s, which was when she was a young girl. Her mother probably sang them to her as a child. I knew the words and could sing along to "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "Bicycle Built for Two," and "Love and Marriage" soon after I was able to string sentences together. The ragtime music that she played was lively and happy. I loved all her songs, but as an adult I realize that some of them had horribly politically incorrect messages, and remembering those in today's climate is highly uncomfortable. There was one song in particular that she used to sing frequently and I loved the tune. Musically it was delightful, but even back then the words disturbed me, particularly the chorus. Embarrassing as it is to recount, it's part of my past and is still etched in the childhood compartment of my brain, so here are the lyrics:

Stay in Your Own Backyard

Lilac trees are bloomin' in the corner by the gate
Mammy's at her little cabin door
Curly headed picanniny comin' home so late
Cryin' cuz his little heart is sore.

All the children playin' around
Their skin so white and fair
None of them would ever let him play.
So mammy in her lap took the weeping little chap
And crooned in her kind old way

Now honey, you stay in your own backyard
Don't mind what them white chile do
What do you supposed they gwine to do
To a black little coon like you?

So stay on this side of the high board fence
And honey, don't cry so hard.
Go out and play just as much as you please
But stay in your own backyard.

What a miserable lullabye! And how very sad that the beautiful tune is tainted by these painful lyrics. As a little girl, I remember loving the image of the lilacs because we had a giant lilac bush growing beside the back door of our house and I'd sit on the back stoop and smell its perfume. I also remember feeling terribly sorry for the little black boy whose heart was breaking, and angry with the white children who wouldn't play with him. But most of all, I remember being disappointed and let down that his mother instructed him just to play in his own backyard.

Of course, as an adult I recognize these lyrics as a thinly veiled message of racism and segregation. I guess all music is representative of the prevalent beliefs held at the time it's composed. I doubt the song was written with hatred as its intent, but instead it was an unconscious reflection of an intolerant and insensitive society. As much as the lyrics make me cringe today, they're historically a part of our past that can't be denied. I guess they serve to remind us how far we've come.... and at the same time open our eyes to how far we have yet to go in eliminating racial prejudices and stereotypes.