The Family Business

Could you work with your brother, sister, father or mother?  For many of us that seems like a terrible idea but it wasn't too long ago that most people followed their parents into the family business and took their siblings with them.  This might be a purely middle class phenomenon, families with a trade would pass their skills onto their children.  The rich pass their money onto their children and the poor pass an ability to 'just keep swimming' to their children.

Maybe my heritage explains my lack of ability to settle to anything.  There were no skills from a trade to pass down.  My father left school at 14 and worked in a garage, then he worked at the airport and finally got lucky and landed a job with the Post Office.  Before anyone gets nostalgic and says, 'those were the days', I must point out that it was a horrible experience for him.  Yes, he's turned out fine but it wouldn't have been his choice. My Grandparents had hundreds of jobs just to keep the family afloat.

Robert Sherman died on Monday.  He and his brother wrote hundreds of tunes, the most famous, when they were working for Disney.  He was the man responsible for It's a Small World.  The song that'll get on your nerves if you ever visit a Disney park.


Robert Sherman singing It's a Small World on You tube


 You can forgive him this when you realise that he is also responsible for Mary Poppins, Aristocrats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Winnie the Pooh and Jungle Book.

Me Ol Bamboo