Even though Cary Grant did a movie titled "Father Goose," I always suspected that there wasn't a real Goose family in the past.
Yeah, I know, we probably bought a book of "Mother Goose" tales for the Willard kids, but we never represented them as stories related by a real person. The books typically had a picture of a friendly appearing peasant woman on the cover and contained nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, Farmer in the Dell, Muffin Man and so on.
These were simply folk tales passed down through the centuries as mothers (who could sing) sang them to placate their little rug rats.
Attempts to track down a real Mother Goose have come up empty-handed; she is a mythical character.
The earliest written reference to Mother Goose appeared in a 1660s poem "La Muse Historique" by Frenchman Jean Loret in his monthly periodical. He wrote "... comme un conte de la Mere Oye," which means like a "Mother Goose" story.
Another French guy, Charles Perrault, who served on the staff of King Louis XIV, was the first to use the inference in the title of a book. He published a collection of children's stories in 1697 titled "Histoires ou Contes du temps passe" ("Histories or Tales From the Past with Morals"). On the frontispiece was the subtitle "Contes de ma me're l'Oye" ("Tales From My Mother Goose"). An old woman telling stories to a collection of children was on the cover.
There were eight stories between the covers including: Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood and Puss and Boots.
In those days, few English people could read French (or English) so in 1729 writer Robert Samber translated Perrault's book to English under the title of "Histories or Tales of Past Times, Told by Mother Goose."
London bookseller John Newbery went Samber one better. In 1744, he had published a collection of nursery rhymes so in 1765 he incorporated the name Mother Goose in his title as "Mother Goose's Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle."
Mother Goose showed up in America in 1786 when Massachusetts printer Isaiah Thomas reprinted Samber's book using the same title -- he probably didn't give Samber royalties considering the recent split from the Crown. Americans really latched onto the mythical mom's stories and she became more popular when a Boston-based printer turned out volumes of lavish and inexpensive versions.
We no longer have little ones to read to, so I don't know if in this age of electronic everything Mother Goose perseveres, but she's had a good run.
- Oscar Wilde left us with: "The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything."
- We didn't have a dance at our reception so I have no comparison, but in 2003 the most popular "first dance" song at wedding receptions was "At Last" by the late Etta James.
- Check this out at your next cocktail party or dinner party. Three out of 10 Americans believe aliens (from other worlds) have visited this planet.
- You can hardly view a musical number on TV today without seeing several. However, Elvis' first pelvic thrust appeared on national television in 1956 on the "Ed Sullivan Show."
- "I wonder where my muscles went," said Tom expectantly.
Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.