Giddy-up yoo-hoo

Okay. So I was all set to do a post on Easter and my fabulous new birthday present, but I learned something last night and had to put the other post on hold. Clearly this is more important.

Let me start by telling a small background story. In Ridgecrest, CA where I grew up, every year on the 4th of July, our stake put on the production "Our Country 'Tis of Thee." Every primary-aged child was allowed to participate. It was a production with songs, dances, costumes, speaking parts, etc. that told the story of the foundation of our country and its history. It was pretty awesome. So these songs we learned, the director taught to us, and we never saw any words, we just learned them by hearing them.

Fast forward a few years. When you are no longer primary-aged, you can play in the 4th of July band. And of course I did. So I was sitting there as a teenager, following along in the music as the primary kids sang, looking at the actual lyrics, not just what I had been singing all my life, and lo and behold the lyrics are not what I thought. I was shocked! Specifically, I am referring to the song "Goin' West," which I danced in as a cute little 5 year old. All my life, I had sung the words like this:

Goin' west in a covered wagon. Giddy-up yoo-hoo! Giddy-up! Giddy-up!
Spied out the rangers. Goin' through Indy and a country.
We're gonna cross the Cumberland Gap.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the actual lyrics do not say "giddy-up yoo-hoo" but in fact read "giddyap MULE." Which clearly makes more sense, but still. And as though that wasn't enough, the next line actually reads "in spite of the danger," not "spied out the rangers" and "Indian country" not "Indy and a country." Needless to say, I felt like a big geek. (but I still laugh about it)

Fast forward to last night. I was sitting at my piano, teaching Liah how to play a song about a certain falling bridge in London. And I was reading the actual lyrics to this song and even as I read them, it made complete sense, yet all my nearly 29 years, I have been singing it a different way.

So here is what I want you to do right now. Think of the first THREE words of that song. Go ahead. Now be honest. Did you say "London bridges falling" or "London bridge is"? Turns out the real lyrics to that song say "London bridge is falling down, falling down..." and yes, that makes complete sense! There is only 1 bridge that was falling! Yet all my life I had sung "London bridges falling down."

So of course I felt the need to share my newly found knowledge with my family. But of course checking first to see if they were already smart enough to know the real lyrics. I called my mom, and she passed, but said my dad said he always thought it was "London bridges." So I called my brother Brandon, and he passed, stating that "it clearly needs a conjugated verb in the sentence for it to make any sense." LOL... while that is true, it's not like that ever entered my mind as a 5 year old. Jeremy and my sister both said "bridges." So far the score is 4 to 2.

So I have to know. And be completely honest! Were you a "London bridges" singer, or were you intellectual enough to have always known it was "London bridge is"???