[78-L] Any Early Music refer to Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919?

[DKing]

Thanks, Peter.  I enjoyed the song.  Some of my Irish forebears would have
thought that song was scandalous, lol.

True story:  when I was much younger, I remember my older relatives laughing
among themselves - because of the blue air letter one of them received from
one of the cousins back in the “old country”.

One of our cousins lived in the same small town as a woman who’d suddenly
lost her husband after many years.

The woman began to go through everything in what amounted to a “man cave”
left behind by her now deceased husband.  She found a locked closet in there
that she hadn’t thought about for years.

Managing to finally get the closet open, she went into shock.  She and her
husband had been teetotalers for many years.  But the closet was full of empty
rye and whiskey bottles.  Apparently the damp Irish climate called for a nip
now & then to help ward off the chill.

The wife faced a predicament:  if she threw out all the bottles at once, her
neighbors would learn of the dead husband’s secret.  And if she only threw
one out at a time, her neighbors and relatives would hear of it and think she
had taken to drink after her husband’s death.  Either choice would have
created a minor scandal back then.

I honestly don’t know what she did with the bottles.  It was a long time ago
and I don’t remember hearing or being told how she disposed of the bottles.

“Ten Little Bottles” reminded me of the story.

- Dave King


> On Mar 2, 2020, at 1:04 PM, Peter Muhr <pemuhr at gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
> 
> 
> Sorry, 1st word of the next to last stanza should be "TWO little
> bottles...", of course….
> 

> On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 4:01 PM Peter Muhr <pemuhr at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> "Ten Little Bottles" by Ballard MacDonald & James V. Monaco, sung by Jack
>> Norworth on Pathe 20458 b/w "I'm on Strike", released ca. early 1920.
>>     "Ten little bottles standing on the shelf, hard luck had only begun
>>       for my wife's mother went and got the flu, and that left only one".
>> YouTube:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOYH418LR-0?rel=0
>> 
>> Peter Muhr
>> 

>> On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 12:44 PM DKing <ginku_ledovec at att.net.invalid>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Hello Everyone,
>>> 
>>> Did any early recorded music refer to the flu pandemic of 1918-19?
>>> 
>>> Or maybe it was so traumatic that people just wanted to forget about it
>>> ...
>>> 
>>> - Dave King
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 78-L mailing list
>>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>>> 
>> 
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l