You are My Sunshine

 Week Twenty-nine: You are My Sunshine

You are my sunshine, My only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you

Please don’t take my sunshine away

—Jimmie Davis, You are My Sunshine, from the album Still Bill

As the weeks rolled by, and I published one after the next entry in what I call This is Where I’ve Been, I began to hear from our eldest granddaughter, Anna. She was asked if reading the entries made her cry. She told my wife, “I’ll cry when he uses our song.” Although it caught me off guard, with a little thought “our song” (and we have been through countless examples in her twenty-four years) could only be one song.

First performed in the 1920’s You are My Sunshine has many verses, each describing romantic love, but for a grandfather (eighty years after this song was first sung) who only knows the lyrics to You’re a Grand Ole Flag, Happy Birthday, and most of the songs first sung by the Beatles, You are My Sunshine is the perfect song to teach a little girl.

I first started singing this song to her before she could walk. There were plenty of afternoons spent on the backyard swing singing the chorus and first verse of this traditional classic. Before long, Anna could finish each line. Soon afterward she didn’t need me to sing it with her.

I can still remember a summer day when Anna was about three years old. Her family visited one weekend, and I was told Anna had a song for me. It went like this:

You are my granddad, My only granddad

You make me happy when skies are gray

You’ll never know, Granddad, how much I love you

Please don’t take my Granddad away

I often think in metaphors, and I think I am attracted to songs that use metaphors to teach their lessons. And, thanks to this 100 year old song, there is no better metaphor for Anna. 

Early in 1999, my wife informed me that our daughter was pregnant. I responded by asking, “Is that a good thing?” I learned quickly and continue to be reminded just how absurd that question was.

As she grew, so did our relationship. The older she got the younger I felt. From Barbies (which I merely tolerated) to extemporaneously created games (e.g. Animal Guessing Game) to countless date nights, being with Anna was the best part of any day. There seemed to be no limits to her ability to endure my torment at her expense. Once in a favorite restaurant of Anna’s as we got to the cashier after selecting our food, I noticed a display of beer bottles. As ten year old Anna waited for me to pay, I asked the cashier, “Can she have a beer?”

“No!” said the woman incredulously.

I turned to Anna and raised my voice, “See?! Now stop asking!” She just rolled her eyes.

You are my Anna,

My only Anna.

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You definitely know dear

how much I love you

Please don’t take my sunshine away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckKeQNCyPBU