My brain hates me
I woke up at 5 this morning – which, since our clocks went forward this weekend, was 4 o’clock Brain Time – and could not get back to sleep. You want to know what I was fretting about? I knew that Topeka was in Kansas and Santa Fe was in New Mexico, but where’n the heck was Atchison?
Kansas. It’s in Kansas, dear reader.
So, while we’re here, “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” was written in 1944, climbed the charts in 1945 and was used in the film The Harvey Girls in 1946, where it won an Oscar for Best Original Song (though if it had been around for two years, it’s hard to see it was original original.
If you’re looking for the earworm, here it is in the movie version with Judy Garland, which sounds curiously sluggish to me. I think it must be the Andrews Sisters version I remember.
Naturally, I don’t remember remember it.
Posted: April 2nd, 2024 under personal.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: April 2, 2024, 7:30 pm
There are songs that you merely recollect rather than “remember” which is to say know their lyrics and tune – can sing at karaoke.
Do you remember the Age of Trains? I know that there are trains still but in the USA trains were promoted as sophisticated public transport and didn’t become as popular as in other countries and cultures. I think wealth and the private automobile took precedence. The USA is still car crazy, from design to power, motor vehicles are still more popular because of the autonomy and flexibility. Do you remember the ’55 Chevy’?
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: April 2, 2024, 9:08 pm
Garland was a powderhound, but it was her parents and the studio that made her so.
Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: April 2, 2024, 9:40 pm
The town was named for Senator David Atchison (D-Missouri, 1849-1855), an infamous Border Ruffian in the 1850s and Confederate general.
I’m bit surprised that the town wasn’t renamed during or after the Civil War. The free-soil people of Kansas had plenty of reasons to loathe Atchison.
Comment from HTL
Time: April 3, 2024, 12:57 am
My great-grandmother had a record (45, I think) with the “A” side being a version of “The Atchison-Topeka and the Santa Fe” and the “B” side being “Waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee”. The “A” side rendering was faster than Judy Garland’s in the movie, but I have no idea what band released it. Not the Andrews Sisters, though. Funny how some things stick with you through however many years may have passed.
On a related note, I was shocked, during the course of my research, to discover that Judy Garland died at age 47, broke and hounded by the IRS as a result of having been swindled by her business managers. Shame on them and may she RIP.
Comment from OldFert
Time: April 3, 2024, 3:14 am
Santa Fe is now BNSF Railway (Burlington Northern Santa Fe).
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: April 3, 2024, 2:59 pm
To The Hounds !!!!!!
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