When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was My Father's Dragon, and I used to love the pictures and maps in it. When my daughter was about 4, I was browsing the discount table of a mall bookstore when I stumble across the old book, like finding an old friend. I took it home to my daughter, wondering if it would hold any of the magic for her that it had had for me. Well, it became one of her favorites. She even took it to school, and the teacher ended up reading it aloud to the class.

I used to sing her to sleep at night with Puff the Magic Dragon, in fact we recorded it on cassette so my wife could play it for her when I was traveling. She also learned to sing "Maria" from Westside story with me, as well as "NeverNever Land", "Side by Side", and "Oh, Danny Boy", which we changed to "Oh, Erin girl". Although she prefers the songs of Alanis Morissette and Cher to my singing nowadays, we still sing an occasional duet when there's no one else around.

As far as stories, most were made up by me on the spot, including The Blob Parts 1 through 12, loosely based on the old horror movie, but often integrating other elements. My favorite was when the Blob took over a leading political candidate and became Blob Dole.

But the old standards of grade school music seem to have gone by the boards- she heard me sing "Sweet Betsy from Pike" the other day and thought it was hilarious. Her music teacher did teach the class "Old Dan Tucker" which she and a friend performed for me.

LEJ