Going through a box of musty sheet music, it struck me that we don't sing much any more.
Many of the pieces have names written on them: Mary Stuck, Mary E Keen, Marjorie Keen, Marjorie Smith, Grace Kwick, Grace K Keen..
Here is just a small part of the contents of that box.
I don't remember anyone actually playing any of these songs on the piano, but I know that both of my parents sang bits of all of them at one time or another - enough that I could probably still sing them.
It isn't that we sang at family picnics and holiday dinners. It is just that the songs were around, somehow in the collective consciousness.
Maybe this happened because more people were listening to fewer radio stations, so had more songs in common?
I recently mentioned at Karen's house that my friends and I would sing folk songs* at slumber parties, and the response was, "What a weird childhood you had!" Apparently my children and grandchildren didn't/don't sing on school bus trips, either. I'm not sure who is weird.
I'm sure we all sing along with the radio in the car.
Sometimes that tends toward strange, yes. I make a point of listening for "Maoz Tzur" every Hanukkah, so that I can sing along. And "Now Is The Month of Maying" reliably shows up on NPR every May 1. But I also sing along with oldies and the occasional catchy country song, at least when I am alone.
In a slightly different category, maybe, but still in the class of unofficial singing, one of my treasured memories is of the Tower Hill Vocal Ensemble breaking into four-part Christmas carols (and possibly bits of Britten's Ceremony of Carols) while waiting for a table at Howard Johnson's after caroling at unremembered homes. We were good, so the customers loved it.
Music makes such strong memories.
Tower Hill music might be its own post sometime.
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* specifically: Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Lemon Tree..
Probably limited to what could be accompanied by two or three chords on our ineptly played guitars.
