Hey, Elmer:

The song is Alfred. One summer night when I was home visiting my family and we were all sitting in lawn chairs, my Mother started kidding around about her old beau, Alfred. I had never heard his name mentioned before so I asked more about him. My Dad (Elmer) seemed a little uncomfortable about the whole thing, but Mom plunged ahead. When my Mother was a young woman, she was in nurses training at the local hospital. At that time, she was going out with Alfred. It was only after I had written and recorded the song that my Mom 'fessed up and admitted that she was engaged to him. Alfred was a classmate in high school with my Mother, in a very small town with less than 20 students in the senior class. He was the Captain of the basketball team. (I wonder if they even had enough boys to have a football team.) Anyway, my Father ('course he wasn't my Dad back then) came to the hospital to visit a friend of his and we he saw my Mother, he was very attracted to her and asked her out for a date. He wanted to take her to the vaudeville show, and a couple of the other girls in nurses training were going to be in the show, so my Mom agreed to go. When Alfred showed up at the hospital that evening, the nurses let the cat out of the bag.

To make the story more complicated, my Mother and Alfred's classmate Velma had a crush on Alfred, but Alfred wasn't interested in her. Alfred also had a sister, who ended up marying my Mother's brother, Walt (I had never even heard of his first mariage as Uncle Walt's first wife died before I was born and he remarried.) There were many revelations that evening, sitting in those lawn chairs.

And here is the song:

Alfred told my Mom that he would be her one and only
But she'd have to be his one and only, too
And if he ever caught her going out again with Elmer
That their courting days would sure be through

CHORUS:

'Cause Alfred loved my Mom, but she was crazy 'bout my Dad
'Course he wasn't my Dad back then
And Alfred hardly noticed that Velma existed
Though she thought he was the living end

Elmer bought some tickets for a night at the Apollo
So that they could see the vaudeville show
And even thought she knew that she was bound to catch the Devil
Still my Mom decided she would go

After work that night when Alfred came around to callo
They told him that my Mom was at the show
And when he found she'd gone with Elmer Alfred blew his top
Just to think that she would dissapoint him so

Alfred told my Uncle Walt who married Alfred's sister Edna
That the day my Mom and Dad were wed
He took a train to Appleton, or maybe it was Fondulac
Because it made him feel so bad

After Mom and Dad were married, Alfred finally noticed Velma
And he came around to call
And when he finally got areound to asking Velma for her hand
She thought the wait was worth it all

A double happy ending..

The song is on my album Handful Of songs, which I've finally had remastered, and will have ready to release in the next couple of weeks.

Jerry