myboblue's Blog

I don't like the new state song either..but the Stephen Foster song , Old Folks at Home with it's minstrel lyrics was NOT the first State Song. It was changed in 1935 and the state song then was "Florida, My Florida"..not being around then I can't understand why it was changed in 1935...evidently the black citizens had no choice in the segregated south as to what song would be chosen to represent their State..now they do.

The grammar didn't make sense in "Florida, My Florida"....but it does in "Old Folks at Home"?
How so?
Way down upon de Swanee ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.

All up and down de whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.
Chorus:
All de world am sad and dreary,
Ebry where I roam,
Oh! darkeys how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home.

Well they did 'whiten up' the lyrics some..but the original lyrics were certainly not for today's society..I think the original lyrics to My Florida are in another blog here..they aren't bad at all but I have never heard it with music.

Swanee River is a song about someone longing for his home. The song talks about being out the the wide world and finding it to be a miserable place. The singer wants to return to his home, to the comforts he knew in his youth. To be in the old home, with mother and the bees buzzing in the hive and nothing to worry about or to take him away from the comforts of the place he left.
Oftentimes we leave home thinking that the wide world shows us a better place and a better way of life but once we are out there, we long for the old familiar things that we have left behind and the longing to return there.
There is a certain love in the home place that cannot be duplicated anywhere else. This is what Swanee River is all about. True, it's a dated song but the longing for home never changes even with the times and has been sung about throughout the ages.

I would like to hear the song that Kathy Fountain's guest (radio disk jockey)recommended on Mondays "Your turn", the words were discriptive of the state of Florida, far better than the one that was chosen to represent Florida.
I think also they could have played the recording of Paul Robeson singing Suwanee River, such deep passion expressed in the words and what a voice to bring it all together.
Kathy if you have another program on the subject I hope you play the Paul Robeson version of the song.

I think the lack of response in this matter explains it all. Only the few had a problem with it. I have been singing that song my whole life and never even thought of it in a bad way. You see I had no part in slavery nor did my parents or their parents. So it never occured to me to be anything other than someone missing a old friend whom happened to be a person of color.

Just try having a white TV channel or a white miss America concert and all hell is going to break loose but it's okay for the blacks to do it. They just have black heritage week in Tampa; the whites should try doing that. These events are RACIST in the extreme but what would happen if we complained? We're supposed to feel sorry for the blacks because they were treated badly in the past but how long can that go on??? They won't ever succeed in society unless they let go and move on yet the blacks are the ones who keep it going.
There's nothing racist in Swanee River; it's all in the head.

momma7290, you are so right..all ya'll are right...i'm sick of walking on eggshells afraid of saying something that may offend. we can't use "black" as a description, we can't say anything that a black person finds "offensive" i'm sick and tired of it..maybe it is time that we as whites start standing up for our rights..if the blacks want to remain separated, separate them..make evrything black or white..start WET Tv, Miss white america, etc..let all hell break loose maybe they'll get the hint. I have friends that are black and it's funny how they think the same way i do. you can't look past color if you keep throwing color so freely.