Saturday, December 01, 2007

Hi, God!

When I was a little girl in Catholic grade school, I received not catechism classes but the choreography to "If I Were a Butterfly (I'd Thank You, Lord, For Giving Me Wings)" from a record album entitled Hi God!

It's another piece of the puzzle, isn't it?

That link, incidentally, includes a brief audio sample of said butterfly ruminations, but it doesn't do justice to the hand motions, which, just as Christ instructed the Apostles, we were required to master before approaching the altar at our First Communion. This, however, comes close to replicating what I might have looked like on a riser some twenty-four years ago. They aren't exactly the same jazz hands as the ones I learned; it seems, like all great mythological traditions, the original form becomes corrupted over time. I also don't quite remember the highly liturgical Elvis-style "uh-huh-huh"s at the end of each verse, but perhaps advancing age protects us from such things.

But wait! There was also "His Banner Over Me Is Love", and I'm pleased to report that this choreography has sustained for at least two and a half decades. So Western civilization has that going for it.

In the act of viewing these videos, it has occurred to me that this is likely how I will view Jim The Small Child Nephew's First Communion in about three years: Not at all. There is no way that decidedly untall me has any chance of seeing the child betwixt the advancing forest of raised digital and Flip cameras of every classmate relative within a forty-state radius.

But in the same way, I rest comfortably in the knowledge that there is likely no surviving footage of second-grade me flapping her arms while pronouncing that if she were a robin, she'd thank You, Lord, for making her sing--nobody could afford a whole entire video camera, and the people who could were doomed to view the major moments of their children's lives with an eight hundred pound VHS shoulder outgrowth. All to preserve, for all time... Hi God!

I have also discovered that while the errors of Hi God! had spread to Hi God! 3 by the time I began high school, we are now up to Hi God! 5--and in CD form. Featured song: "Yes We Can!"


...no we can't at: mbe@drinktothelasses.com

8 comments:

Starnarcosis said...

Aah, video cameras. Allowing me to preserve such moments as a highly intense rendition of "What do you do with a drunken sailor", to show at oldest daughter's wedding someday. So the groom's family will be prepared.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot... now I will be singing "If I were a kangaroo, I'd just hop right up to You" ALL NIGHT.

ShannJ said...

Sean goes to daycare at our local YMCA and learned the words to that song. As far as I know, he hasn't learned the motions yet. He came home from school singing "I just thank you for for making me me, cause you gimme heart, and you gimme smile, you gimme Jesus and you make us child". It sounded so familiar, and when I googled it, I found the Hi God book. I was cracking up! I get that stuck in my head all the time now!

Shauna said...

The lyric I learned was "if I were a robin in a tree - I'd thank you Lord for making me sing." Darn Methodists...splitters!

Anonymous said...

Oh-- you know what? You're right. I mixed up that lyric with the butterfly one. I'll go fix it.

I know I should be proud that I DIDN'T remember the correct words, but I am somehow deeply ashamed.

Unknown said...

Now I'll be singing all day as well. Those songs are also a staple in Baptist Vacation Bible School.
"If I were an itty bitty worm, I'd thank you Lord that I could sqirm."

Red Pill Junkie said...

I'm also deeply, deeply thankful that there is no surviving video record of me as a fatty, tall 5-year-old dancing the choreography of Cri-Cri's "El Ratón Vaquero"!

http://www.cri-cri.net/Canciones/elratonv.html

I kinda feel sorry for these newer generations. All those embarrasing moments (and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM) are to be forever preserved, so that they would need TWO lifetimes, one to live the momets and the other to watch them on DVD...

Katie said...

When I taught kindergarten a few years ago, we had to teach the kids this for their "graduation". It's amazing how quickly it all came back to me from my Catholic grade school days, the words AND the motions. My 5-year-olds were impressed that I knew it all already.

And now I will have the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

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