3V1010.02 Singing (10/26/80)

Peggy’s favorite song is “The fox went out on a chilly night.” This is her
first song, (in the sense of having parts well enough known for her to
begin singing). Her original version interleaved two lines, “The fox
went out on a chilly night” and “town-o, town-o…(repeated a variable
number of times)” Peggy often asked everyone and anyone to sing with
her about the “Fox and Chilly Night”. As we drove down to Guilford one
evening (to buy a pizza) in singing the song I emphasized the “quack,
quack, quack. line” Shortly after, that line (with “the legs all dangling
down-o” also entered the repertoire. She sings often by herself and
even when sensitive to an audience. What inspired this note is Peggy’s
offering a performance. She asked, “Daddy, would you like to hear me
sing ‘The Fox and the Chilly Night’?” She then proceeded in a bashful
and entirely self-conscious manner to NOT sing. For example, at least
five times, she leaned over and brushed her hair out of her eyes. She
followed this, I seem to recall, by several divagations — straightening
her clothes — and then concluded by abandoning her performance.
Peggy clearly saw herself as “onstage” and had a problem. We can well
infer her other singing is not so self-conscious as this episode.
Other songs she can sing ? A little bit of “Snoopy and the Red Baron”;
“Boomer — never gonna settle down” (of the theme from Mash).

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