John Fogerty

One day she brought me home from nursery school where she was one of the helper teachers, I guess, one of the moms of the staff.

She brought me home and sat me down on a little chair.

Now I look back, it was a little ceremony.

She had a little yellow record, a kid's record,

And basically what she did was she played both sides of this little record.

One side was Oh Susanna, and the other side was Camptown Races.

Do da, do da, you know, that one.

And then she asked me, well, do you like this music?

I said, yeah, mon, these are cool songs, or whatever a kid says.

I really like these.

She says, well, I'm going to play them again, Johnny.

She plays both songs, and she says, do you know that Stephen Foster is the man that wrote both of these songs?

What do you mean, Ma?

He said, well, Stephen Foster is a real person that wrote this music, and I wanted you to know that these are his wonderful songs and that people do write songs.

And then she gave me the record.

That kind of became my little possession, right?

And I have reflected on that moment in my life.

I mean, I used to tell people, why did she do that?

What in the world was she thinking, right?

And all through the years that I was living at home with my mom, there'd be somebody on TV, there's Irving Berlin.