Goodbye, Mary Travers

This is less a public notice of her death and more an expression a fan's grief over her passing and a morbid reflection on watching the evidence of one's childhood slipping into the chewing maw of time. Happy Thursday!

I had a thing for strong-jawed, wilful, blond women when I was a kid, which meant that I studied M*A*S*H's Major Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan, The Muppets' Janice, and Mary Travers whenever I could catch them on our white plastic television. They stood tall, spoke loudly, and didn't avoid attention. To me, they were demi-gods.

Peter, Paul & Mary lived in a cassette tape in the first stereo that I bought with my own money, and I used to play "Lemon Tree" over and over, rewinding the tape to replay it until the tape stretched, snapped, and had to be scotch-taped back together. I was inspired to listen to them by my grade six teacher, Mrs. Gregorich, who couldn't stand to hear us sing "Puff the Magic Dragon" during school assemblies. The first time she cried and left the gymnasium, she explained to us afterward that the loss of childhood was a death worth grieving.

I am not quite so nostalgic. Childhood sucked to a large extent. What moves me about Mary Travers' passing is that my heroes are physically disappearing. The people who first showed me what it looked like for a woman to stand tall and to speak clearly, the people I aspired in part to become when I imagined myself grown up, are leaving me to my own adulthood. It sort of feels like a door closing on a house we lived and loved in for years.

Goodbye, Mary. You and your music inspired my little kid self to want to be more. Thank you.

Comments

[Zakary]

Love that last shot of her.

And it would be nice if everyone could stop dying.

[mouthy_broad (michele)]

that is a very sweet tribute.

[Laurie]

Beautiful reflection. I also feel the "left to adulthood" aspect of this year deeply (not just for this reason, but moreso for this reason.) I've been reverting lately to the music my mom played on an endless loop in the 70s, which I suppose makes sense.

I love that first shot of her.

[Mauigirl]

I feel the same way...when I heard it this morning I cried.

[clarabella]

We had that "Best of PP&M" cassette & used to play it over and over and over on family road trips. I'll be humming "Blowin' in the Wind" to myself all day and mourning Mary & my own childhood a little.

[Amy W.]

We used to listen to "Ten Years Together" (on 8-Track!)during car trips when I was a kid. I remember staring out the window at all the houses lit up in the dark while listening to "500 Miles," and feeling a deep homesickness. Probably my first experience of melancholy. I have the same feeling today.

[thatgirlblogs]

wrote almost this exact post today. will miss her.

[Liana]

I remember dancing to "Lemon Tree" in my parents' living room as it played on their turntable.
She will be missed.
And, lovely and very true post! In the past few years quite a few of my heroes/heroines have died- people who I felt were distant family, though I'd never met them. ***sigh***

[Isa Lube]

was she born again??? If so, that is wonderful !!!

[vibaku]

I have a bit of an ear for music, and it's interesting that just out of the blue, spontaneously, after I had learned to strum chords on a guitar, I played and sung, "If I Had a Hammer," a fun song to sing on a guitar. I guess my favorite of theirs.

[mike]

My brother had the album where their names are written in chalk on a brick wall behind them, and I played that album a bazillion times.
The song about the young woman who dresses in a man's uniform to join her beloved (I guess it would have been the Civil War?) used to slay me.
Very sad news today...

[Jen.]

My first two "grown-up" albums were PP&M (the PP&M and Movin') and the New Christy Minstrels. My first concert was PP&M at 10 and I forced myself to stay awake until "Lemon Tree" played and then I fell asleep.

I still listen to them, sing them to my children, and hope their music carries on.

Beautiful post.

[BaltimoreGal]

My parents had a reel-to-reel tape player (Old! I am OLD!) and one of them was a live concert of Peter, Paul & Mary. We listened to it all the time.

"Leaving On A Jet Plane" always made my mother wistful because it reminded her of when my father was in Vietnam. For three years she watched him leave, not knowing when or even if he would come back. The song still makes me a little verklempt after all these years.

And my dad always loved "Lemon Tree".

[Joy Reed]

I love their music. I offer my prayers and condolences to the family.