"But that one makes me cry." 

For those of you familiar with the old Andy Griffith shows, you might recognize this saying as one that Charlene Darling would say to her pa when trying to decide which bluegrass song to sing and play.  They would finally agree on a song and her pa would advise Andy to "jump on in and hang on" (in his southern drawl) as the famous Dillards would "commence" to play.

Anyway, that saying is what came to mind today when I heard an old familiar song.  It's a song that I had heard hundreds of times before, but had never really stopped to listen to the words...

"Puff, the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary

...a song that brought back memories of my childhood, but not because of the words.  I remember back in my elementary days at the good ol' Interstate 35 school building in St. Charles (no, we didn't go to school in the middle of the highway - ha) when we were getting ready for our annual spring music program.  As the younger grades were listening to the older students practice, one of the kids on the stage fainted.  It was a scary thing for me because I had never seen or even heard of anyone fainting before.  And, since that was the song that they were singing at the time, it stuck in my mind.

Well, today our oldest son asked if I could play "Puff, the Magic Dragon" on youtube.  I told him that I could and picked out one of the videos that included the lyrics.  I sat at the computer as it played and, for the first time, really listened to the words of the song.

That's when I cried.

The song tells of a young boy who has an imaginary dragon who does very brave things and they have wonderful adventures together.  But, one day, the dragon senses that he is no longer needed, as the boy is growing up and going on to bigger things.  The toys and childish imagination get left behind.

As a mother of two imaginative boys, this song really struck me.  Yes, I want my boys to grow up and go out on their own some day, but sometimes it's sad to think of leaving these little boy things and special memories behind.