Memory Monday: Mary Had a Little Lamb

My great-grandparents and their children

MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB

As I have said in a couple of earlier posts, my daughter and her husband are adopting a little girl. When we are privileged to babysit her, we like to play some of the children musical CDs we have collected. One of the songs on them that we (and our granddaughter) really like is “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” This is one of the songs that I sang to my children when they were small (we used cassettes back then), and at the time I didn’t really think about where or when it came about. It was always just there in my memory from my childhood.

Because I write historical romance, one of the interesting (and fun) things that happens is that I sometimes stumble across an interesting tidbit from years ago that is tied to the present. When I started researching fashions of the 19^th Century, I came across a magazine called Godey’s Lady’s Book. It was the premier women’s magazine for many years. Sarah Josepha Hale was the editor from 1837 to 1877. The other interesting thing about Sarah Hale was that she wrote the poem Mary Had a Little Lamb and it was first published on May 24, 1830.

In the picture above, my great-grandmother sits with her husband (who fought in the Civil War). Her parents were born in 1831 and 1833, which means my great-great-great grandmother might have sung Mary Had a Little Lamb to her children and grandchildren just like I have in the past and still do today.

I wonder how many more generations in my family will sing that song to their little ones.