“The sun has got his hat on.”
As a kid things seemed so sensible. So believable.
I remember my parents would be always saying that phrase and singing the old song. Normally when the sun was out which as we lived on the Yorkshire coast was on average once every three years….
The sun has got his hat on hip-hip-hip hooray
The sun has got his hat on
And he’s coming out today (Gay & Butler)
I remember asking my Dad once why the sun would have his hat on. Dad said that it was to keep the sun from the Sun’s eyes…..
At the time it seemed an entirely plausible explanation. I was happy with it.
Looking back those 930 years at my Dads answer and I can spot one or two minor issues. Surely the hat needs to be inside the Sun to keep itself from blinding itself. Maybe it’s not as scientifically watertight as I had once thought. Ok let’s call it a philosophical metaphor. Not sure Dad did them…
It’s now made me question some of the other things my parents told me.
Thunder rumbling is Cowboys and Indians fighting in the sky….
Lightning was dragons fighting in the sky …… very busy up there
Wind and the clouds moving was down to all the butterflies in the world beating their tiny little wings all at the same time….
Fairies and elves lived at the bottom of our Garden. …… For a while I misheard that one and believed Elvis for some reason had moved to Yorkshire
The Sky was blue because it was reflecting the colour from the oceans and sea …….. most odd as the North Sea is permanently grey offset with the occasional black oil slick
Every Sunday lunchtime my dad would set off in the direction of the pub saying that he was ‘off to see a man about a dog’. As it was every Sunday, that must have been some dog.
You only got curly hair if you ate the crusts from your bread slices.. I’m still waiting and actually probably left it a tad late now.
I suspect some of these parental facts might be a little dubious. My life has been based on so many falsehoods. Well at least I still have Santa. Maybe I need to borrow the Sun’s hat to hide under it for a while. Best thing to do these strange days.