I might have cried a couple times today.
Did you know that kids don’t really know Puff, the Magic Dragon anymore? Well they don’t. Yet another reason I am feeling O. L. D.
Today someone wanted to use the word puff in a poem and I said, “Puff? Like the magic dragon?”
I got blank stares all around although one kid said, “Yea, I think so…”
So I sang a little bit of it, feeling old, wondering why we don’t play a little Peter Paul and Mary anymore.
It was fun to sing with the kids – well not with, but to the kids. Even through they looked at me like I may have finally lost my mind.
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff
And brought him strings, and sealing wax, and other fancy stuff
So cheery! A magic dragon! But, when’s the last time you listened to that song?
Because, it’s a sad one, dude! SAD!
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave
So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave
I might have started tearing up as soon as I sang, “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys!”
Did I tell you that tomorrow my little boy travels to Spain for like a million days? (Okay, he’s 18 and it’s for a week and a half.)
Today, I might have cried when I was telling him how proud I am of him for all his hard work lately.
Today, I might have cried telling my parents how anxious I was about him traveling so far away.
But my first cry was this morning when I accidentally started singing Puff, the Magic Dragon. So I’m blaming Peter Paul and Mary, I guess.
On a Thought 
I get it. I’ve cried in front of my students before. As I read aloud the end of Where the Red Fern Grows. To be fair, some of them were crying with me.
I’d be crying right there next to you! That song has always brought tears to my eyes. May your son have safe travels and you have comfort while he’s away! (And keep introducing the littles to Peter Paul and Mary!)
We were talking about how “kids these days” dont know the nursery rhymes like they used to and you have thus given me the challenge to see if Puff the Magic Dragon can make a comeback
*I also wonder if they know skidamarinkydinkydink skidamarinkydooooo*
ooooo – I loved that when I was a kid … will be teaching skidamarinkydinkydink asap.
Well, now you students have heard the song! Nice work!
Awww, Puff the Magic Dragon! No, I didn’t realize how sad that song is, waaa! 😩 Is there a name for these moments? The ones where you recall a deep memory and it smacks you in the face? And especially the ones where you see your kids littleness just morphed right before your eyes? Don’t even get me started on feeling O.L.D. Great post!
You just transported me right back to my songleading days at summer camp, watching 300 kids do hand motions to “Puff.” So many of these songs (I’m looking at you, Cats in the Cradle, Circle Game) feel like one kind of song when we’re little, and emerge as something else entirely when we grow up.
And the moment that had you choked up? Proof to your kids that you are, indeed, HUMAN. An important connection, in my opinion. =)
Well, my goodness. Thanks for a trip back along “memory lane” accompanied by a haunting tune and beautiful words. I don’t even have a little boy traveling and I teared up myself. Lovely connections between past and present, words and life.