This week I bought Natalie Merchant’s new album “Leave your Sleep.” She says on her website that she set out to capture the universal experience of childhood through music and poetry. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all the songs yet (there are 20!) but so far I really love the music.

There’s just something about the album that reminds me of when we were kids dancing around the family room to “Joy to the World.” I can’t remember the other records we used to play – but I remember that song and I remember standing on dad’s feet as he pranced around, swinging us round and round.

Probably my new favorite song on the album is a poem written in 1924 by Nathalia Crane – who at the time was only ten years old and experiencing her first boy crush….on a red-head!

“Oh I’m in love with the janitor’s boy,
And the janitor’s boy loves me;
He’s going to hunt for a desert isle
In our geography.

A desert isle with spicy trees
Somewhere near Sheepshead Bay;
A right nice place, just fit for two
Where we can live alway.

Oh I’m in love with the janitor’s boy,
He’s busy as he can be;
And down in the cellar he’s making a raft
Out of an old settee.

He’ll carry me off, I know that he will,
For his hair is exceedingly red;
And the only thing that occurs to me
Is to dutifully shiver in bed.

The day that we sail, I shall leave this brief note,
For my parents I hate to annoy:
“I have flown away to an isle in the bay
With the janitor’s red-haired boy.”

I’m in love with the janitor’s red-haired boy too!