It’s exactly one year since I published my first WordPress blog entry, so it’s back to childhood for this short post. Pop goes the Weasel is one of those peculiarly English expressions, which, on the face of it, is hard to comprehend*. It is a nursery rhyme from the days of yore, and it’s one which I seem to have known for ever.

Only a couple of days ago, I heard the words, and, even though it must be the best part of 50 years since I heard the song, I was singing the words to Anthony Newley’s 1961 hit of the same name – word for word. If you don’t know the singer’s name, he was an actor, singer and songwriter whose heyday was in the 1960s – a very clever man with an easily distinguishable London-accented style.

This ‘singalong’ ability of mine isn’t restricted to this Anthony Newley song – many, many other songs from the ’60s easily come back to mind word-for-word even if I’ve barely heard them over the years. They must have stuck there as they were in my formative 13-18 years – and of course I remember much else from that period – I even remember the ‘summer of love’ in 1967, when it’s said that if you remember it, you weren’t there…..

At nearly 71, I feel I am lucky to have retained my memory function seemingly intact, whereas many have either lost recall or are losing it. It always seems to be ‘I remember what happened 50 years ago, but not 50 seconds ago’. A common problem linked to the Alzheimer’s brain disease, which I can only hope never comes my way.

It may be pre-written into my genetic makeup that I get it or not, but I just make a point of stretching myself mentally as much as possible – stretch not stress – and I’ll keep up with this for the rest of my days, if I’m spared.

*’Pop Goes the Weasel’ meaning (according to the lyrics in Anthony Newley’s version).

Pop goes the weasel refers to
The habit of London hatters long ago
Popping or pawning their weasels
Or accessories on Saturday night
To buy liquor, isn’t that interesting….