Nostalgia Post No.3: Such a Goofy Dream! – Guest Post…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Back in 2013 I had a really goofy dream – goofy enough for me to want to share it and possibly make you chuckle.

It seemed there was a new TV station starting up and they were building a news team.  (I presume this is from my having watched so much wildfire coverage lately.)  I had been hired as a news anchor.  Unfortunately, they signed me to do sports (a subject I know nothing about; the only sport I follow is ice hockey).  But I must have needed a job because I took the assignment. 

But the other strange thing was that all the anchors had to top off their reports by singing a song. (??)  When my turn came, I sang “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.”  Is anybody here old enough to remember that song?  Here is what the Wikipedia article says about it:

” ‘I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts’ is a novelty song composed in 1944 (as ‘I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts’) by Fred Heatherton, an English songwriter and published by Box & Cox Publications (ASCAP). In 1949, it was a top-ten hit in the U.S. for Freddy Martin And His Orchestra with vocalist Merv Griffin and sold over three million copies.  The following year, it was a number-25 hit for Danny Kaye. It celebrates the coconut shy (coconut toss) at funfairs.”

coconut-shy-adrian-evans

Source: Fine Art of America Coconut Shy photographed by Adrian Evans Uploaded  Oct 26, 2012

When I was in the 4th or 5th grade (about 1950), I learned to play a little on the ukelele and I just loved that song and learned to sing it and accompany myself on the ukelele.  I would mimic Merv Griffin’s rather phony British accent fairly well, I do think.  I did it once at school for show-and-tell.  Obviously I was a lot less inhibited as a child than I became later! 

As a child, I didn’t really understand what was going on in the song, although I got the sense that it was some kind of game at a fair.  In fact, I only just now learned from Wikipedia that the coconuts were not the thing that was being thrown, but the prize you were throwing balls at (see the article Coconut Shy in Wikipedia.) You’re never too old to learn something new!

I’m sure that ancient memory of singing that song as a child was why I picked it to sing in my goofy dream!

 Here is the Merv Griffin version.  Enjoy!

And go to my original post to read some interesting follow-up comments.

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14 thoughts on “Nostalgia Post No.3: Such a Goofy Dream! – Guest Post…”

  1. Pingback: Nostalgia Post No.3: Such a Goofy Dream! – Guest Post… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog – Guinea Conakry Presidential Election 2020.

  4. Hahahaha! Love this…and I’ve never heard that song!
    At the summer where if the school where I work, I was on the coconut shy stall last year and I’d love to have this tune playing in the background if I do it again! Haha!

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  6. Reblogged this on TINA FRISCO and commented:
    Lorinda J Taylor is a guest on The Story Reading Ape, sharing a goofy dream about coconuts, Merv Griffin, and funfairs. This was the perfect post to end the evening with in light of the intense political climate here in the U.S. Thank you, Lorinda and Chris. I shall sleep well tonight 🙂

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