Roll Out the Barrel . . . of fun

I’ve noticed over the years that it almost never rains on my birthday but afterwards it seems like June gets very wet.  I actually enjoy a nice summer rain, when it’s warm.  The cold rain, I don’t like so much.  It’s seems early in the season to get tornado warnings and I was surprised to hear that even Ontario got some warnings this week.  Despite the unpredictability of early summer, is there really anything better than summer time?

      I remember as a young girl visiting a friend whose grandmother was staying for a visit.  Her grandmother was very young and full of fun.  It sounds corny, and it was corny, but she had a ukulele which she twanged away on and sang these old camp songs that I had never heard before, including “roll out the barrel, let’s have a barrel of fun”.  I never hear that song without thinking of Heidi’s grandmother.  Another friend’s mother was one of our Girl Guide leaders and I remember her singing a naughty song at my one and only camp out “Beans, beans, oh the magical beans . . .” 

      Music seems to be more in evidence during the summer time, probably because when a person is skiing they are thinking about not breaking their legs rather than singing in key as they fly down the slopes.  My red face and sweaty hair to the contrary, summer is usually a time for more leisurely activities such as lying on a lawn chair catching the sunshine, or walking through a park, or even hiking; all of which activities can include some music.  In any event, a lot of my summer time memories include songs of one sort or another.

      So what’s your favorite summer time tunes?