I have a question for you.  Have you ever had an old song enter your head that won’t go away?  Especially a song that was way over played in its time and you were sick of it?  It’s like a punishment from Hades.  Well when I woke this morning such a song arrived in my mental in box.  It’s an old country song by Little Jimmy Dickens.  I tried to replace it with other songs on the internet, but nope, within minutes it was back like a phonograph needle on scratched acetate.  

I had questions like…Why this song?  Is there a message or is it a hells random choice of punishment like karma for something I have done in the past.  After breakfast I sat on the back porch enjoying the sounds of the birds.  Oh ya, birds..the word bird triggered the unpleasant sound reverberating through my mind.  Even with the lawnmower revved up the lyrics kept their relentless pace.  The worst part of the process is this was a novelty country song, which does not have a long wear life, but in this case it did.  The difference is this song aside from humor has a message to it.  It is the story of a guy who goes through life as a self centered financial miser or a “skin flint”.

The song is called “The Bird Of Paradise”  and part of it goes like this:

One fine day I was walking down the street
Spied a beggar man with rags upon his feet
Took a penny from my pocket
In his tin cup I did drop it,
And I heard him say as I made my retreat
May the bird of Paradise fly up your nose
May an elephant caress you with his toes
May your wife be plagued with runners in her hose
May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.

The worst part is there are two more verses.  If I got distracted  the song returned to my head it played from the beginning just to let me know it was still there. It is then I concentrated on the message as to just how mean spirited and cheap some folks  can be.  A penny is not a measure of our fair share unless a penny is all we can spare.   The second verse deals with someone finding a hundred dollars  in his cloths at the laundry and informed him. The skin flint fetches the hundred bucks and gives the laundry guy back the price of the call which at the time was a dime.

The lesson here is about sharing your bounty with others instead of only concentrating on ones self.

The last verse is another lesson. Skin flint gets into a cab in a hurry to the airport.  The speeding cabby gets a ticket because of skin flints situation and ole skin flint waits for the cop to write the ticket so he can get change from the fare.  

Yes at the time the song was funny, but the song had a message something we all need to consider as we go through life.  Sometimes messages and reminders of things we were taught years before are repetitive even when humor is used but they are reminders that thinking of other peoples feelings should never go out of style.  Did thinking about it work?  No I can hear the third verse loud and clear, ……………………here it comes again.

 

 

 

 

Fred Steele