I attend a class at the Y once or twice a week called Healthy Back. You may have remembered that I wrote about it here last month. The first hour of the class is spent in the deep end of the pool, then we move to the shallow end for “floor” exercises. We move from one side of the pool to the other in different ways – tightrope walking, on tiptoes, gliding, sideways, with leg lifts, etc.
What is unique to this class is that the exercises are performed while singing. Yes, singing. We sing folk songs, show tunes, old classics - think “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain,” “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad,” “Oh Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam,” “Eidelweiss,” “Happy Talk”, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” (Depending on your age, you either started to hum while reading that last sentence or stared at the words with a questioning look.) What surprised me the most wasn’t the songs, but the fact that I knew the words! Where did that come from, I wondered? Perhaps some I learned in school or at home, but when we started in on “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” I knew. Suddenly I was ten years old, sitting on the front porch of my house, swinging back and forth on an old glider with my best friend Ruthie…and we were singing.
Ruthie was full of life and it was hard not to copy her carefree ways. We shared a love of paper dolls, jacks, and orange creamsicles. She taught me how to ride a two wheeler, play pick-up-sticks, and sing with all my heart. Since her family lived in the other side of the twin row house where I lived, we were together from sunup to sundown in the summer.
Singing with all your heart…maybe that’s the key to a healthy life.
What is unique to this class is that the exercises are performed while singing. Yes, singing. We sing folk songs, show tunes, old classics - think “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain,” “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad,” “Oh Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam,” “Eidelweiss,” “Happy Talk”, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” (Depending on your age, you either started to hum while reading that last sentence or stared at the words with a questioning look.) What surprised me the most wasn’t the songs, but the fact that I knew the words! Where did that come from, I wondered? Perhaps some I learned in school or at home, but when we started in on “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” I knew. Suddenly I was ten years old, sitting on the front porch of my house, swinging back and forth on an old glider with my best friend Ruthie…and we were singing.
Ruthie was full of life and it was hard not to copy her carefree ways. We shared a love of paper dolls, jacks, and orange creamsicles. She taught me how to ride a two wheeler, play pick-up-sticks, and sing with all my heart. Since her family lived in the other side of the twin row house where I lived, we were together from sunup to sundown in the summer.
Singing with all your heart…maybe that’s the key to a healthy life.
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