Sunday Again!

we started the day as usual, a slight sleep in,

and in no time it was a read and sherry time, 

we started with a huge spring roll,

I mentioned to Diana it was just like the ones May used to make when instead of a pizza takeaway next to the shop it was a Chinese takeaway, it was delicious, 

we needed a long break after that, for today roast beef, with gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself, 'Cheers!',

the dessert was a good as it looked, 

apple pie, custard and ice cream, in the afternoon feet up for a film, one of Diana's favorites, well one of mine as well, 

 The Big Country, here is what I commented  about the film in November 2017, 'talk about an all star cast, Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoya, Ramón Gutierrez, Chuck Connors, Chuck Hayward to name just a few, in case you have not seen it the film contains for myself one of the best, if not the best, monologues in film history by Burl Ives,

 and here it is, Burl Ives in the speech that won him an Oscar, and rightly so, I did read somewhere that his monologue was made in one take, the first one, and that was the one used in the movie, there were no second takes, strangely enough my first childhood memories of him was him singing in the Uncle Max radio show from 8 till 9 on a Saturday morning, I guess I was about 5 or maybe 6 years old, so 1955 or 56 the song? Big Rock Candy Mountain, a song about a hobo's dream land, great lyrics, here they are in full,

One evening as the sun went down

And the jungle fires were burning,

Down the track came a hobo hiking,

And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning

I'm headed for a land that's far away

Besides the crystal fountains

So come with me, we'll go and see

The Big Rock Candy Mountains,

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,

There's a land that's fair and bright,

Where the handouts grow on bushes

And you sleep out every night.

Where the boxcars all are empty

And the sun shines every day

And the birds and the bees

And the cigarette trees

The lemonade springs

Where the bluebird sings

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

All the cops have wooden legs

And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth

And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs

The farmers' trees are full of fruit

And the barns are full of hay

Oh I'm bound to go

Where there ain't no snow

Where the rain don't fall

The winds don't blow

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

You never change your socks

And the little streams of alcohol

Come trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats

And the railway bulls are blind

There's a lake of stew

And of whiskey too

You can paddle all around it

In a big canoe

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,

The jails are made of tin.

And you can walk right out again,

As soon as you are in.

There ain't no short-handled shovels,

No axes, saws nor picks,

I'm bound to stay

Where you sleep all day,

Where they hung the jerk

That invented work

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

....

I'll see you all this coming fall

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

the song was first recorded in 1928 by Harry McClintock, its a Hobo song, the word Hobo I have been told stands for Helping Our Brothers Out, first coined in America's Great Depression', and if you want to join in, sing away!

Burl Ives, as I am singing along, I remember those far away Saturday mornings so well,

 what a great actor he really was, after a snack in the evening it was,

 

H.M.S. Defiant, set in 1797 at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, HMS Defiant is an enthralling British naval drama made to capitalise upon MGM's epic remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, also released in 1962, the main story is the contest of wills between a benevolent captain and a cruel, vindictive first officer, after which a Midsomer Murder it was before we were off to bed.