Singing a song

You know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head?  That happened to me this morning, while I was cutting my hair.  I was in the process of sweeping the hair off the bathroom carpet and thought to myself, "There has got to be a bushel of hair here."

Bushel.  Now there's word I haven't used in a long time.  Why in the world did it happen to come to me at that exact moment.  Immediately, I'm talkin' immediately, a little ditty from my long ago past jumped into my head.

Perhaps you remember it, too.  "I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck.  A hug around the neck, and a barrel and a heap, a barrel and a heap and I'm talking in my sleep...." and so on and so on. 

Now, my curiosity was aroused, because I couldn't remember where the song originated.  I knew it had to be from my youth, it must have been popular and often played on the radio, and that it was from a time when you could actually understand the words the singer sang.  (Unlike today when most songs are loud and mumbled.)
Anyway, I decided I was going to have to research this...shower, shampoo, and shave are going to have to wait.  And off to the Internet I go.

I learned the song was created by a fellow named Frank Loessner in 1950, and apparently it was not expected to go anywhere, until it became a song from the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls and was sung by Vivian Blaine.  Later, the song was recorded by several personalities including The Andrew Sisters, Perry Como and the delightful, beautiful, talented Doris Day...(Yes, I adored her).  I'm sure today there's not a kid in the world has even heard of these people, much less the song.

However, this is what really got me to thinking.  Do kids today even know what a bushel and a peck are?  I don't think so.  As I mentioned it has been years and years since I've even thought of these words, much less spoken them.  As a result, and although I'm pretty sure my kids have heard bushel and peck spoken, I'm not sure they even know what they are.  For instance I'm sure on at least a couple of times I've told them (when they've accidentally got a smidgen of dirt in their mouths) "It's okay, you're supposed to eat 'a peck' of dirt a year." 

How curious that words come and go...and with it a bit of Americana.  Sunday afternoon outings frequently took us by farmer fruit and vegetable stands.  The staples for displaying them were always woven baskets in two sizes, one was a bushel and one was a peck.  Bushels of apples, and pecks of tomatoes.  Oh, you could buy just one apple or one tomato, but what a joy it was to go home with a bushel of apples and a peck of tomatoes in the trunk.

Today, 90% percent of the time, if you stop by a fruit and vegetable stand...if you can even find one.  What you buy is put into a plastic bag, that is flung into the trunk, and when you get home you find the apples and tomatoes have been rolling around back there with every turn you made.  Sigh, I guess it is what it is.

Besides, roadside stands are becoming obsolete, now if you want fresh fruit and vegetables you have to wait for weekends when communities set up "Farmers Markets" in town plazas or parking lots.  I confess I've been to some of those, and they're okay, I guess.  But....

...there was just something about that surprise, when you rounded the bend of a country road, and found an unpainted, slightly leaning fruit and vegetable stand at the end of a farmer's rutted, unpaved driveway.  There were the bushels and the pecks filled with all kinds of home grown produce, enticing, luring you, tempting you to stop.  It was often overwhelming.  Some of these stands were operated by barefoot children, or sometimes by the 'honor' system.  A weathered sign posted the price 'per each' or by the 'bushel and a peck' in white wash, and a dusty, finger-printed glass jar, sat in the corner of stand,  you were honor bound to pay.  In those days I have to believe everybody did, so everybody won.

There you have it.  Another trip down memory lane.  Oh, and just in case your curious, a bushel is a unit of measure of dry goods equal to 64 pints.  And a peck is a unit of measure of dry goods equal to 8 quarts. 

Imagine me...I'm still singing..."I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a la, la, la, la, la".