These apples come together to form a gourd patch of the Virginia chapter of the American Gourd Society, the Virginia Lovers' Gourd Society. Crackled Apples apply their gourd knowledge and curiosity to unique, offbeat, and sometimes just plain strange gourdy dicoveries.
Currently, Roger Miller's song, OO-De-Lally (also called Robin Hood and Little John), is the song track for the 2015 Android commercial. The designer for this commercial chose the right song to reflect the friendships that make the world.
The original use of this song was for the 1973 Disney movie, Robin Hood. Oo-De-Lally was one of the songs Roger Miller wrote for the wandering minstrel in the story. The craggy voice and casual word pronunciations of the lyrics worked as Disney's singing rooster.
...and now for the gourding parody:
Virginia Lovers’ Gourding Folks
Virginia Lovers’ Gourding folks at the arboretum
Digging dirt ’n making holes on such a lovely day
Gettin' seeds, and makin' plans, talkin' ‘bout the harvest
Gourds o golly, gourd o golly, fill in the holes this way!
Virginia Lovers’ Gourding folks were pourin' on the water
They were spreadin' papers all around the deed
Tossin' straw, markin' mounds, havin' such a good time
They forgot to actually put in all the seeds. **gasp!**
Virginia Lovers’ Gourding folks at the arboretum
Diggin' up the mounds that they just dug so carefully
Puttin' in the gourd seeds and standin' back to check the work
Gourds o golly, gourds o golly, gourds for you and me!
Gourds o golly, gourds o golly, gourds for you and me! Cracklin' in the garden on this spring day! You?
Always On My Mind was the backside of this record, the B side.
Another parody....be patient while I get this out of my system!
This one is the song, Always On My Mind, was originally published in 1972 and has been sung by many musical artists; Gwen McCrae and Brenda Lee did the first versions. Elvis Presley came out with his version the same year as the B side of Separate Ways which was shortly after separating from his wife, Priscilla. Of course, because the separation was the scandal of the year, and Elvis' popularity was so high at the time, conditions were favorable for the song to soar on the Billboard charts. [For the uninitiated, 'B side' refers to the song recorded on a 45 record that essentially is the second best to the main song on the front side.]
By far, the most successful version of Always On My Mind was done in 1982 by Willie Nelson. Although Elvis' voice can be smooth and polished, it is the absence of those qualities that make Nelson's song believably charismatic. Willie Nelson's voice can illustrate pain and remorse precisely because of its earthiness.
This is the perfect song to parody for gourd songs about the remorse a gardener feels when the gourd seeds that do not sprout or produce fruit. There is a tender sadness to the fact that the original hope of things to come [gourds to craft in the future] has been lost due to neglect or ineptitude [poor location or lack of water].
Here are the original lyrics to this song:
Maybe I didn't love you / Quite as often as I could have
And maybe I didn't treat you / Quite as good as I should have
If I made you feel second best / Girl I'm sorry I was blind
You were always on my mind / You were always on my mind
And maybe I didn't hold you / All those lonely, lonely times
And I guess I never told you / I'm so happy that you're mine
Little things I should have said and done / I just never took the time
You were always on my mind / You were always on my mind
Tell me, / Tell me that your sweet love hasn't died
Give me, give me / One more chance to keep you satisfied / I'll keep you satisfied
The gourd parody needs to reflect the remorse in these sad words, yet be inspire hope that things can be better with a fresh start.
I put my seeds in a bad place / Not in full sun as I should have
And they were in the wrong space / No space to roam as they could have
An open field would’ve been the best / I’m so sorry I was blind
[but] It’s too late to grieve and whine / It’s too late to grieve and whine
Harvesting should have waited / ‘ Til the frosts had come and gone
And the vines should have died away / showing proof the plant was done.
My little gourds needed dif’rent care / Looking back I wasn’t kind
I'll know more next year, next time / I’ll know more next year, next time.
Next time, / Next time there’ll be sun and space to roam
And I”ll know / I’ll know more ‘bout how to get my gourds to grow / To get my gourds to grow. Gosh, we have a cracklin' good time in the VLGS!! CAM
Recently the Crackled Apples and Dappled Apples gourd patches came together and practiced some gourd rims on scraps. In this example we drilled holes, used rainbow colored ribbon, and threaded it through alternate holes. What we found, in all cases (even for those who have limited sewing experiences), it is not important to know the name of the stitch or have a fancy design in mind. The key to 'sewing' a rim is repetition. Whatever the stitch is that begins the process should be repeated...it is the repetition that makes the decoration. In all cases, this made unique decoration.
We began with a scrap and drilled some holes. Actually, we began by trying to bore holes in the gourd with a dissecting probe but that took too long and in some cases bent the probe. A drill is best for this job. It makes a dusty debris, but nothing objectionable and a towel underneath the action can catch the dust to be shook into the trash or yard later on.
Using a darning needle, we threaded a ribbon and began a rhythm of going from back to front, back to front through alternate holes. In the case shown, the ribbon was a rainbow design so, once sown, it looks like a rainbow of color moving around the circle.
As simple as this appears, there were some things we learned and caution others about when this is tried: 1- make sure the drilled hole is big enough to accommodate not only the needle head, but the needle head with the double bulk of the thread/ribbon that goes through the eye of the needle, and 2- soften the rough edges so the threading material (ribbon here) has as smooth a path as possible. In this case we had to adjust the size of our needle and ream the holes with a dentist file to make the holes a little smoother.
The next step is what stumped some folks. In fact, I bet if we surveyed people who make gourd rims, tie knots, sew skirt trims, or embroider edging, we would find that the majority learned that it really does not matter what kind of stitch is used because it the end a decorative finish is the result of repetition. [Note that I said 'decorative finish' -- this is not to be confused with the practical need for a back stitch or a buttonhole stitch.] In this case, once the ribbon was extended through alternating holes around the circle, the sewing backtracked to pick up the empty holes. Initially, the needle was put through a hole that already had ribbon in it, and then put through the empty adjoining hole.
Repeating the same action all around produced an interesting edge of a slash/hyphen image. A different repetition would have produced a different rim image. Using a black ribbon for the slashes and a gold ribbon for the hyphens would have been another difference altogether! No doubt you can see how with the change of colors, weights, and repetitions, a rim can take on a myriad of decorative looks.
Once done, additional threads can be passed through the ribbon and holes. Here, a buttonhole thread begins to make a Spirograph design across the diameter of the circle.
There must be a algorithm for the mathematical possibilities!
Thank you Dappled Apples, sister gourd patch of the Virginia Lovers' Gourd Society! We crackled together!
