The weather has suddenly turned cold, and as I walked my dog, Sam, this evening, I was enjoying that crisp alive-ness which only comes in cold weather when one has a cozy coat on. Sound seems to carry better in the cold, and I could hear a song well enough to know it was one I liked but had not heard in some time. Then the song changed and I could hear it clearly (having also walked closer)--some undergrads across the street were playing the Doors, and Jim Morrison was singing "The men don't KNOW, but the little girls UNDERSTAND!" But I think what I really heard was my dad singing from across a decade or so, and seeing the wide-open-mouth-and-scrunched-up-eyes expression necessary for rendering the italicized words with the proper emotion (KNOW to rhyme with YOW!)
I dithered over the appropriateness of this post for a family oriented weblog, but Sam maintains that though the song may seem to be charged with a certain something, it is actually quite innocent. "I am myself a back door man," he explained earnestly, "particularly at the times immediately after breakfast and supper."
