Happy Mother's Day

The Story behind the Songs Newsletter Series
February 15, 2005 Issue #28

Happy Mother’s Day – written by JR Still 1993

“Happy Mother’s Day” is the hardest song I have ever performed live. It’s difficult for me to sing this song without getting all choked up and emotional. I don’t recall why I wrote this song. It was a purely inspired song and pretty much wrote itself. You have to listen to the whole song before you realise it’s a tribute to my dad; a Vietnam vet/single parent father. Dad went straight from being in active service in the US Navy to being a parent of a baby boy. Who’d a Thunk it!

The song opens with fond childhood memories of starting the day and the things dad would often say that have stuck with me through the years. (Sun shining in my eyes I wake to the smell of bacon as it fries, “Time for school”, I hear you say so I, so I pull on my shoes and then I wash my face. “Good morning son”, “clean your plate”, “grab your books now and don’t be late”,”I’ll pick you up after school”,”have a nice day” and “don’t break the rules.”)

The next part is creative writing that is remenisent of several times when I felt like the odd one out by not having a mom in my life at that time. The teacher’s name is actually the teacher’s name from ‘The Little Rascals’ one of my favourite childhood T.V. shows. (Miss Grabtree says today’s a special day, take out our crayons and our paste we’re making gifts for a coming holiday. My mind raced was it Thanksgiving surely it couldn’t be Christmas yet, Valentines or Easter Miss Grabtree which one did I forget?)

When I was a child it was quite unusal for children to be raised by a single parent father. So most all my teachers were very supportive and sympathetic once they knew. Being a bachelor’s boy I had to learn early on how to take care of myself to a large extent. Dad had never raised any children but had trained a lot of soldiers. So, I was probably trained to be self reliant more than raised. (With a loving smile she quizzed my mind asking who it was that spends all their time cooking for me and cleaning my clothes, combing my hair and wiping my nose I didn’t know quite what to say so I stood there in dismay when she whispered in my ear it’s Mother’s Day.)

This is the part of the song that would have probably put me on a shrinks couch for several sessions had I not written this song. I often felt envious of my friends and their beautiful mothers. (Our work was all done it was ‘show and tell’ time the first to go was a friend of mine ; Bobby’s card was gold and blue. He said his mommy’s favourite colours were his favourite colours too; that her hair was long and gold and that her eyes were blue.)

Here is a bit more creative writing to express the awkwardness of not having a mother in those early years. I seldom ever had friends over because we often lived in the garages were my dad worked on cars. Not the kind of environment caring mothers would let their children go. Nor did mothers feel comfortable arranging outtings and children’s parties when their wasn’t’ another mother to help. (I was last I was ashamed to go Miss Grabtree do they really need to know? She patted my head and said no one would laugh but I stood there with my card behind my back.)

Now here’s the part that’s a little weird to me. I wrote this song in 1993 and my dad was still very much alive. So, I don’t know why I wrote this part. My dad heard the song before he died in July, 1995 as a result of having been exposed to the chemical ‘Agent Orange’ while serving in Vietnam. So, finally as a young adult in my twenties I had the understanding that became the last words of the song. (That was so many years ago and at the time I didn’t know you were the best mom I could have had. So here’s that card that I never gave I’ll leave with these flowers at your grave…And it reads, “Happy Mother’s Day......Dad”

This song is dedicated to blessed parents everywhere and to the loving memory of the best parent I could have ever had: L.R. Still 1941-1995.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the story behind the song. If you’d like other information you can check out the CD credits at www.jamesray.info/cdcredits.html