How Y'all Doing? : Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived (9780063076211) by Jordan Leslie

Author:Jordan, Leslie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

Hymn Singing

I come from a long line of hymn singers. For generations, my family has sat in pews singing hymns, sat on riverbanks singing hymns, swung in swings on front porches singing hymns. We have sung hymns in barns, in the backyard, on picnic benches and at family reunions. We have sung hymns while ironing our clothes, cooking our food, mowing our grass, hanging our laundry on the line, feeding our animals and shining our shoes.

Hymns were sung when we were born, hymns were sung when we got married and hymns will be sung when we are put in the ground.

“Will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by. There’s a better home awaiting. In the sky, Lord, in the sky.”

My daddy, Allen, and his older brother, always called Mack Junior, along with their cousin Jackie Reece, would pull out a guitar or a baritone ukulele at any family gathering and go to town. A lot of the songs were silly ditties that had been passed down generation to generation.

“My daddy was a-shavin’ as the story goes. The razor slipped and it cut off his nose. The doctor sewed it on but sewed it upside down. Now every time it rains my daddy nearly drowns. If you don’t believe it, don’t blame me, I’m only tellin’ you what my daddy told me!”

Or sometimes, they would sing popular songs they had heard sung on the radio. I was really surprised at their stirring rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Daddy taught me all the chords on my baritone ukulele, and I learned to play and sing it as well.

Another favorite of mine was “Kumbaya, My Lord.” It was always sung around campfires when I was a kid. There is something incredibly comforting about the song. The word “kumbaya” means “come by here” in the language spoken by the Gullah, African Americans who live on the islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The song is easy to sing, as it repeats phrases such as “Someone’s singing, Lord” or “Someone’s laughing, Lord” or “crying,” or “praying,” or “sleeping.” Then comes the “kumbaya,” which is basically beseeching the Heavenly Father to “come by here.”

But eventually, we would always end up singing hymns. We would all sing hymn after hymn. From the youngest grandkid to the oldest grandmama or granddaddy, the hymns burst forth.

We had a good time.

I have been blessed with a family that loves to laugh and loves to tell funny stories. I’ve seen families out in restaurants where they eat a whole meal, and no one says a word. Well, that ain’t my family. We are all big talkers, big laughers and big storytellers.

And we all fight just to get a word in edgewise.

We also love jokes. My daddy was a master at telling jokes. They were never dirty. Just questionable. He was a real cutup and the funniest person alive. I loved his Dumb Dora jokes.

“Dumb Dora was climbing a tree. All the boys laughed and pointed up.

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