The Blue Tail Fly*

During my career as a teacher, my two favorite colleagues were both named Charlie--Charlie Musch, of Edinburg (TX) Junior High School, and Charlie Graham of Philadelphia's Lincoln High School. Both were grizzled veterans of the music education trenches, much loved by colleagues and students alike, and from whom I learned much in the year I spent with them.

The one I'm talking about today, though, is Charlie Graham.  I worked with him in his last year at Lincoln High School.  As the last day of school grew nearer, he said jovially, "Dan, my new name is Jimmy Crack Corn".  Being the dense band director, it took a moment or two for me to understand what he meant.

The first line of the chorus of "Blue Tail Fly" is as follows:
"Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care".

So when we'd have staff meetings or read daily announcements, he'd tell us again, "my name is Jimmy Crack Corn".  I can't hear that song without thinking of Charlie--and can't think of him without smiling.

I'm well aware of the minstrel origins of that song, and that it once contained lyrics that to modern ears and minds would be considered offensive, even racist. Charlie wasn't racist--he went out of his way to shelter students who he thought were being harassed or excluded.  The point of this post, if there is one to be gleaned, is that "Jimmy Crack Corn" was his way of letting go as retirement neared. He cared deeply about the state of Music Education in the School District of Philadelphia, and lamented what once was at Lincoln High School..

So as I leave the Free Library of Philadelphia, I'm presented with a choice: lament what once was, and won't be again, or move on gracefully, grateful for the experience I had and the people I met.

Onward.

*--American minstrel song, c. 1847.