Comments on: jan morris | why I mourn the decline of whistling

By: Carol Doty

Carol Doty — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:40:13 +0000

I’m belatedly opening e-mails, so It’s a bit late to respond to this.
I was always an everyday mediocre whistler, and was often told the old proverb, “whistling girls and crowing hens always come to some bad ends.” Now, at 77, I see the bad end is an abundance of wrinkles surrounding my mouth. I still whistle a little, sometimes almost soundlessly, and unconsciously. A sign of time passingt?

I wonder if you know Mary Oliver’s “The Whistler”? Her it is:

All of a sudden she began to whistle, By all of a sudden
I mean that for more than thirty years she had not
whistled. It was thrilling. At first I wonder, who was
in the housem, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and
she was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and
cheerful biurd, not caught but visiting, the sounds war-
bled and slid and dopubled back and larked and soared.

Finally I said, Is that you? Is that your whistling? Yes, she
said. I used to whistle, a long time ago Now I see I can
still whistle. And cadence after cadence she strolled
through the house, whistling.

I know her so well, I think. I ought. Elbow and a-
kle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger, too.
And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin
to know each other? Who is this I’ve been living with
for thirty years?

This clear, dark, lovely whistler?

By: Gloria Drummond

Gloria Drummond — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:58:34 +0000

Loved this. Especially the James/Jan Morris story and The Car!

By: Pedro

Pedro — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:31:56 +0000

Thank you Jan for writing that great piece in the Wall Street Journal. I looked up Pedro the Fisherman and it is quite an excellent song to whistle. It offers plenty of challenges to the whistler. I’d love to hear you whistle on Youtube.

For those of us who do have a good ear, bad whisling is quite a shock. Sometimes I’ll be whistling along and someone will chime in. After a few notes, I’ll stop if the ear is insulted.

Anyway, it is hard to whistle when you’re sad, but you’re sure not to be as sad when you’re done with your song.

By: David Zep Dix

David Zep Dix — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:36:25 +0000

Norb
Thou has done it again!
I shall attach your link to the next issue of the Waukesha Sewer Raccoon News, and will personally deliver a reprint to my hardward store man, who constantly penetrates the air in his store with his whistling. It is cheery, and customers look forward to it. Olson’s Ace Hardware, Waukesha WI Go there for steady whistling.
Thank you for this!

David Dix

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:23:06 +0000

Bing Crosby used to whistle in his songs, remember?

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:06:51 +0000

I’d forgotten about whistling until I read this. I remember people whistling when I was a child in the 40s. I wonder if the war had anything to do with people putting on a brave front. I never did develop any whistling muscles, but I could sing all the songs on the hit parade.

By: Chick Peterson

Chick Peterson — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:27:38 +0000

I am reassured to find myself whistling as I head into the house for lunch, and often I whistle as I begin to think the painting might “work.” And, incredibly, though I have trouble remembering things like my zip code, I remember hearing over the radio the wonderful Elmo Tanner who whistled for Ted Weems (sp?) orchestra back in the 30′s….. full time!

By: Barbara Vroman

Barbara Vroman — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:23:01 +0000

love her. love her blue car, love her hands jammed in her pocket, which
affirms I’m sure that she is whistler.

When ever I feel afraid I whistle a happy tune, and tell myself that I’m not AFRAID!

By: carl hecht

carl hecht — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:26:36 +0000

and the earthly sound that resounds within the heart, soul and ether that encompasses us all. the joyful cry that I am forever as ever as ever more,
the rise and fall the undulating movement of lovers who eternally rock to and fro from and the waves rising and falling within the triphammering of their heartsfused and forged in the eternal lathe and lather of their fomenting fulminating culminating joy as one

By: Alice D'Alessio

Alice D'Alessio — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:36:14 +0000

I have to agree with her; I used to whistle through washing the dishes every night as a teenager- rendering the entire Hit Parade from last to first place. I find that I can’t do it anymore; the whistling muscles have deteriorated from lack of use.