Home Sweet Home
“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home...” John Howard Payne
Indeed, there is no place like home.
I woke up this morning and this beautiful sunrise greeted us. I could think of no other words, other than, “there’s no place like home.” I grew up watching the “Wizard of Oz” from a little boy, so the phrase, “there is no place like home” was embedded in my mind and heart.
It turns out that the novel “The Wizard of Oz” that inspired the 1939 movie was written in 1900, by L. Frank Baum and the words Dorothy replies to the Scarecrow when asked why she would ever want to leave the beautiful land of Oz are:
“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.”
Maybe that is also a benefit of travel. It sure fired in me a great appreciation of home. To sleep in our own bed (and with my own pillow). Travel is good for us and in so many ways.
I discovered some deeper history this morning about the phrase, “there’s no place like home”. The quote at the top of this blog is from a popular worldwide hit song, from 1823, called “Home, Sweet Home.” The song was written by American lyricist John Howard Payne and English composer Sir Henry Bishop for an opera named Clari, or the Maid of Milan.
This song became deeply embedded in American and British culture during the 19th century.
I was curious where my “AI friend” found this information and asked for the references. There were four references provided from musicology and cultural history literature.
One of the references was from a Master’s thesis written by N.E. Bock (University of Central Florida) titled “Home, Sweet Home: Gender, the Civil War, and reunion through popular music”. It was in this research that I learned that this song, “Home Sweet Home”, was widely considered the single most popular tune of the American Civil War era for soldiers on both sides!
Home Sweet Home. A song sung by all soldiers.
On the path together,
John
(Grave site of childhood friend of our guide, Mili Kapic. It was extremely painful for Mili that he is still “missing in action”)