Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans by Louis Armstrong
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans lyrics
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
I miss it both night and day
I know that it's wrong... this feeling's gettin' stronger
The longer, I stay away
Miss them moss covered vines...the tall sugar pines
Where mockin' birds used to sing
And I'd like to see that lazy Mississippi...hurryin' into spring
The moonlight on the bayou.......a Creole tune.... that fills the air
I dream... of oleanders in June...and soon I'm wishin'that you were there
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And that's where I left my heart
And there's something more...I miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans
(instrumental break)
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And that's where I left my heart
And there's something more...I miss the one I care for
More.....more than I miss.......New Orleans
Dear Friend, My name is Penny Cunin in Enfield, EN14NR. (Lond.UK.)
Since I was a young girl in Trinidad, Caribbean the place of my birth),
I used to hear that song on Radio "Redifusion" ..my family used to have the radio on from morning till 'sign-off' time ...I believe these songs came from WVDI..the American Station where the American base was during the second world war..and after! Nearly every 'Trini'used to sing the songs from the Radio...I loved that particular one about New Orleans...and having seen some movies when I was young ..I just dreamed of one day I will visit New Orleans.
My children and my grand daughter(Tamsin) know that I very often sing this song expecially when I am doing the daily chores! When the disaster of Katrina came with such vengeance ...my Tamsin phoned me saying ..."Grandma look at the place of which you always singing that song!" I smiled with sadness and emotions rose from my heart and into my eyes. I remembered in the eighties, I went to see the Missisippi River where my sister took me with her sons ...to throw the ashes of her cremated husband into the waters. I can see in my minds'eyes the scene where we went was a flooded area like a river bed..still and quiet.. leading straight southwards from where I was standing ...as far as the eye could see; this tree-lined path of the river... so lovely ..a scene of such indescribable beauty and peace. I will never forget this spot on this earth! Yet it's deathlike silence filled the air, no one else was there but us four ...I felt as if we were in another world waiting for the 'Ferryman Charan'to take us across!
But alas, this was not the right place it seemed for my sister to place her box of ashes of her loved one ... for her it was too eerie and lonely! So we went on further to a more 'sociable' place where she could go down to the bank of the River and soon I watched my sister and one son climbed down this hill (while I with the other son stood by)they soon reached the side of the river bank where they went into a small boat with the owner and the they moved down the murmuring waters way off where she threw the little box of ashes of her dearest husband into the river... alas, performing the last rites of her East Indian ancestors!
And now I regret I never got the opportunity to visit New Orleans, the place I dreamed of in my youth! I feel such sorrow for those who lived there and now no more... sans city, sans houses etc. and sans people.. sans everything! Is it a like a 'flower that once hath bloom forever dies'...No I want to believe that "No star is lost we once have seen, we always will what we might have been".
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