Popo the Puppet
(Fine, S) Performed by Danny Kaye
Popo, Popo the puppet
Popo, Popo the puppet
Popo, Popo the puppet
A fellow that you ought to know -
Oh, Popo the puppet can do anything, a-thing, a-thing, a-thing
Popo can fly though he hasn't a wing, a wing, a wing, a wing
He can juggle a prune
Blow up a balloon
Or tickle a tune on the piano
He can fly a kite
In spite of his height
And sing in both bass and soprano!
Popo the puppet can jump through a ring
Swing on a swing, spring on a spring
Yes, Popo the puppet can do anything
When somebody else pulls the string, the string, the string, the string
When somebody else pulls the string
I hope some day you can see Popo
He's a most unusual fellow
His eyes are purple, his nose is pink
And his hair - a remarkable yellow
Popo can bark (Arf!)
Sing like a lark (La la la!)
He can moo like a cow (Moo!)
Do like a sow (Oink!)
Sound a note just like a goat (Maaa!)
Popo can blow like an automobile (Beep!)
Do like a seal (Awrk!)
Then like a hen (Bok bok bok!)
Popo the puppet can do anything
If somebody else pulls the string!
Popo the puppet can jump through a ring
Swing on a swing, spring on a spring
Popo the puppet can do anything
And he did it
How?
And he did it
Why?
And he did it
Where?
And he did it
When?
When somebody else pulled the string-
Oh
When somebody else pulled the string-
Say
When somebody else pulled the string, the string, the string, the string
When somebody else pulled the string.
Well!
This week is a detour from my own timeline to talk about my father-in-law, Jim, who turned 80 on the weekend. This is the song that will always remind me of him, because not only did he sing it to my girls when he was bouncing them around as babies, but he's a huge classic movies fan, a lifelong Danny Kaye fan, and Popo captures something of the wonderful playfulness of my remarkable father-in-law.
Dave had a really hard time figuring out what to get his Dad for this landmark birthday - and especially as we are in the midst of trying to convince his parents to sell their house and move closer to us; as we are trying to get them to downsize, some dustcatcher (a mug or framed picture) seemed counterproductive. In the end, and thanks to an online suggestion, we assembled a gift basket of themed items. The highlight of the basket was a bottle of good scotch from the locked cabinet of the liquor store and a few of Jim's favourite munchies (cheesies, cracker jacks, licorice allsorts, the roasted cashews that an online forum said would pair well with this particular scotch). We picked up some movies from his birth year of 1937 - a collection of newsreels, Gold Diggers of 1937, and the original A Star is Born - and one of those booklets that gives all the news/culture/prices from 1937; we had already picked up a funny book of quotes about aging that fit in well, too. Dave wanted to go to the antique mall to find something interesting to put in the basket, and while he got really excited about a screen-used weapon from the movie Spartacus (that he imagined framing up with an autographed picture of Kirk Douglas), Kennedy and I were less excited about that idea; his sister reckoned it would be just another dustcatcher. Ultimately, Kennedy and I found an old Avon aftershave decanter in its original box (as pictured above) that's in the shape of a car from 1937 - yes, it is a dustcatcher, but it seemed appropriate for a retired barber (and especially as it was only six dollars; no big deal if it ends up being tossed out). I thought that a basket of primarily consumables was an appropriate gift for an 80 year old; Dave feared that the message was, "You ain't gonna live long, so here". I do believe that Jim liked everything just fine (and, really, the scotch was the main gift and that will be appreciated).
It's amazing to me that Dave and I still have all four of our parents around, but an eightieth birthday impresses on me the tolling of time (no matter how young and playful Jim still acts). As we were having dinner, I was trying to get Jim to tell us some stories about when he was young - wouldn't that be the time for it? - and this is all I got:
Jim weighed three pounds when he was born and was brought home from the hospital in a shoe box. When his aunts and uncles first took a look at baby Jim, they called for a priest to baptise him; convinced that he wasn't long for this world.
When Jim was little, his Mom would make him a chocolate cake for his birthdays, and she would put dimes and nickels wrapped in waxed paper inside for Jim and all his friends to find. (Mallory sneakily found a nickel, wrapped it in waxed paper and stuck it into her Grandpa's slice of cake. Big laughs.)
A movie cost twelve cents when Jim first went to the theater. He could get a bottle of pop and a hard candy for a nickel.
He and his friends spent one summer digging an underground tunnel that they shored up with plywood and railroad ties that they found by the tracks. (Did he say that they tunnelled under the tracks?) When the shaft was discovered, the railway workers spent a week dismantling and hauling away the purloined lumber.
The other day I said something to Dave and Kennedy about the the close call Jim had in his army days, and Dave said he hadn't heard that story. So, after I prompted Dave to ask his Dad about that, Jim explained that he wrecked up his knee as he ended his term of service, so he couldn't rejoin. Everyone who did re-up from his unit was rotated into parachute training, and on the day that they made their first jump, the wind shifted and the entire unit was swept into the Ottawa River, where something like twelve of them drowned. Turns out that Dave had heard this story before, but it's sobering to think of a world in which Jim didn't survive to found this family that I love.
Jim then began another story about his army days (how he loved the field training, and especially the night recon where they would try to sneak up behind and spy on another unit - and the dire consequences [involving being stripped and humiliated] if they were caught), but then the cake was brought out and that was it for story time. As he blew out the candles, Kennedy said something like, "And here's to eighty more!" and my mother-in-law Bev said, "Oh no. More like ten to twenty at the most". Ha!
From three pound preemie to three open-heart surgeries to now doing all the heavy lifting for a wife with Alzheimer's, Jim has lived his life with determination and joy. In his mellowing old age, he's a great husband, father, grandpa and father-in-law; and we love and need him in our lives. Here's to many, many more years.