Hey, they had to make their own fun back then

A couple of weeks ago I saw an article in Time about the death of Jo Stafford at the age of 90. She was a singer and a familiar name in my house when I was a kid. My parents loved music and she was one of their favorite singers. But there was a little hidden part of my memory that was struck by this article when I got to the part about the album she and her husband put together as a satire. On this album they sang all the songs off-key and the piano was overly dramatic and quite awful.

That brought me back to the 50's when I was 8 or 9 and my parents were having people over to the house for a "cocktail" party. Mom would put on the Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller records. Then, in the middle of the mix, she would put in the album of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. It was great fun to see people merrily drinking, talking and laughing - then suddenly hear the songs and get a quizzical look on their faces. They didn't want to insult my mother on her choice of music, so no one would actually say anything. But they make these strange sideways glances and more than a few eyebrows were raised. In the meantime, my mom and dad were having great fun watching their reactions.

The 50's were a strange time. I think this was the same decade when a friend of the family made a huge batch of mini creme puffs and put a ball of cotton (in lieu of custard) in a few of them just for laughs. Of course, my dad got one of those. But I don't remember much laughter on his part.