Just Strolling—songs I learned at my mother's knee and other low joints

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As I stepped outside for my daily walk, there was a distinctly Autumnal crispness in the air. On such a day, I would expect high-flying geese and enormous flocks of starlings wheeling overhead: there were a few sparrows flocking in the neighbor's hedge, but nothing on the grand scale to which I was previously accustomed. I found myself unconsciously singing the introductory lines to a Flanagan & Allen song, "Strolling':

Strolling, just strolling,
In the cool of the evening air

A recent conversation with a friend—his choral choices are much more refined than my own, I might add—reminded me of the BBC wireless program 'Sing Something Simple' with the Cliff Adams Singers (audio link on those pages) accompanied by Jack Emblow on accordion. Claimed to be the longest-running continuous music programme in the world with over 2,100 shows in over 40 years of broadcasting, the phenomenon was quite an achievement and evidence of popular appeal. In 'Private Lives' (1930) by Noël Coward, the character of Amanda Prynne says, "Extraordinary how potent cheap music is." The Flanagan & Allen song was the sort of potent tune that was grist to the 'Sing Something Simple' mill. Ah, they don't write songs like that any more.

Mind you, neither do they write songs like 'Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea', a 1954 UK #7 chart success for Max Bygraves. Before my American audience starts with any self-congratulatory tittering, let it be known that the song, written by the Russian-born American duo Al Hoffman (Minsk) and Dick Manning (Gomel) from the first and second city of what is now Belarus, was also a #18 Billboard best-seller in 1954 by the Four Lads in the USA. Choosing between the two best-known versions of the song may be difficult.

Although the full title is composed of nonsense words invented for the novelty song, there is a well-known Jewish family named Katzenellenbogen ('cat's elbow' with an etymology going back to Roman times) from Katzenelnbogen, a small city in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The family claims Marcel Proust, Karl Marx, Felix Mendelssohn, and Helena Rubinstein as descendants. I was unable to determine if the Katzenellenbogens have adopted the Hoffman-Manning song as a family anthem. The city of Katzenelnbogen is famous as the place mentioned in the first ever documentation about Riesling grapes in 1435.

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Avoiding low light into the lens produces some interesting compositions, in addition to drawing disbelieving stares from passers-by.

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Just a tree with a certain attitude. Don't stare, you will only encourage it.

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This was the nearest thing to a flock of birds that I was able to find.

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Color changes are creeping in all around.

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When I'm strolling, just strolling,
With the light of the moon above,
Ev'ry night I go out strolling,
And I know my luck is rolling

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