What Happened to Wooden Sidewalks?

When I was a kid growing up in central Maine our town had wooden sidewalks. I can remember walking on the sidewalks and my shoes making that clicking hollow wood sound they make when walking on the sidewalks. I can even remember thinking as a small child how it would be awful if the sidewalks disappeared. Well, sure enough, they disappeared when I was still very young and I miss them. They still have them in Portland, Maine on a small street in the harbor which I see whenever I go home for a visit but its such a small place.

Today I was watching an old western and saw the wooden sidewalks in the film. I was wondering why they got rid of them.  They were cheap, functional and environmentally friendly not to mention a natural atmosphere. Maybe we should bring them back but then, there’s probably some kind of law saying you can’t. Seems like anything simple has a law against it. Are there any towns that still have them? I’d like to know.

Have I Told You Lately That I Loved You?

When I was little my mom use to sing ‘Have I Told You Lately That I Loved You’.  She didn’t sing it in front of people or anything but around the house to wake us up in the morning or when we came down stairs for breakfast then she would sing  just the chorus bit have I told you lately that I loved you.

Jump to years later and I would do the same thing. When the kids came downstairs to eat breakfast or if I was rousting them out of bed I would sing, have I told you lately that I loved you but I never really heard the original song. I knew it was some kind of country song but I don’t recall hearing it. It is typically a song the local radio station would play…WDME in Dover-Foxcroft…but I don’t remember it.

This afternoon my daughter was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework and I found myself singing it just to say I loved her. It got me thinking so I searched for it on youtube. I found lots of versions of it. I gave my mom a call and we had a talk. She said her mother loved Gene Autry and thought his voice was wonderful. She would play Have I Told You Lately That  I Loved You on the piano and they would all sing the song. I guess the chorus part stuck in my mom’s head and years later she would sing the song to us. I couldn’t find the Gene Autry version on youtube but here’s a Jim Reeves version which is in the same style. I was surprised to see that there were a few versions done by young people giving the song a more modern twist. Guess its a classic. I’ll have to have my kids listen to it some day and then they will know that I didn’t just make it up but its a real song.