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Sitting in Moe's Southwest Cafe during a layover at the Atlanta airport recently, enjoying a chicken quesadilla, my enjoyment was heightened when I heard on their audio system Frank Sinatra singing "How About You?" I've always liked this song, and it suddenly occurred to me that revising it could be a way to offer a (to me, at least) touching tribute to my high school days by changing the word "like" to "liked." In case you're not familiar with the song, here's the first chorus:
I like New York in June
How about you?
I like a Gershwin tune
How about you?
I love a fireside
When a storm is due
I like potato chips
Moonlight and motor trips
How about you?
And here's my version, with apologies to Ralph Freed and Burton Lane:
How About You?
I liked Martha Lake in June
How about you?
I liked how Mathis crooned
How about you?
I liked a pep assembly
With a big game due
Chocolate malts and cherry Cokes
Car coats and moron jokes
How about you?
I thought drive-in movies a treat
How about you?
If, that is, viewed from the back seat
How about you?
I liked the Wireless
And the Vodvil too
Desert boots and Mary Janes
Crew cuts and flowing manes
How about you?
I liked Cunningham's class
How about you?
And giving Mase Hall sass
How about you?
Racing up and down 99
In a chopped Ford '49
Was crazy to do
But I liked it
How about you?
I liked watching "Cheyenne"
How about you?
And being a Rainiers fan
How about you?
Packed team bus rides to Burlington
Where we seldom won
I'd never rue
'Cause I liked them
How about you?
I liked five-cent Dentyne
How about you?
I liked "Life Magazine"
How about you?
From '54 to '57
With our hormones' engines revvin'
The time just flew
And I liked it
How about you?
For some time I've wanted to use the spell-out formula of the cloying song "Mother" ("M is for the Million things she gave me/ O means only that she's growing Old") as a model for a back-handed tribute to my alma mater. Here's how that came out:
E-D-M-O-N-D-S (to be sung to the tune of "M-O-T-H-E-R," with apologies to Howard Johnson--no, not that Howard Johnson)
E is for the Eloquence I ain't got
D is for the Dough I never made
M is for the Math I quickly forgot
O is for the Oaths from which I strayed
N is for the Name I never wrought
D is for the Dreams that got waylaid
and
S is for the Saint I'll never be
But put them all together, they spell EDMONDS
A school that's still a jewel to me.
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