HAPPY IS THE DAY...!!!

A recent conversation with a friend concerning misremembered lyrics immediately brought to mind an old summer camp song in which the lyrics weren't so much misremembered as never actually understood in the first place by either my brother or myself. We didn't realize this until years later when somehow the revelation of our error simply "clicked" and we realized we had both made the same mistake although we were always in separate groups during song time. I guess it's just that bond that brothers share.

There was a line in a song where everyone stopped singing and yelled, "Happy is the day when the counselors go away!!!" You can see how that would be a playfully fun line for all the young campers. Well my brother and I spent three summers yelling, "Happy is the day when the cow birds go away!!!" under the assumption that everyone else was yelling the same thing. We did have cow birds in the area afterall. We didn't know why their departing was cause for such joyous rapture, but we couldn't help but join the rallying cry against them. Heck, we weren't farmers. What did we know?

Well apparently our hatred wasn't actually shared by the masses as we believed. We were an army of two. Two young, passionate brothers in a solitary quest to rid central Florida of every last cowbird under the false impression that we stood part of a giant movement against them.

I feel bad now for all those innocent birds that we killed in our free time. It suddenly becomes clear why everyone else was "all talk" while only my brother and myself were willing to be moved to action. Thank God we didn't mistake the lyrics for, "Happy is the day when the cows all go away!!!" Somehow, I think if we were out butchering the livestock it wouldn't have flown under the radar as well as several dozen wild birds did.

Those are precious memories Evan and our youthful cluelessness still cracks me up to this day.