Santa Project season 2: Christmas profanity memories and Brenda Lee’s Return

At one point, years ago, my oldest child Aidan was in the Cub Scouts. We had attended a late fall Boy Scout event that we were driving home from, and listening to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” on a Milwaukee radio station.

Incidentally, I’ve read recently that her classic has actually unseated Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas is You” from the top of the charts. That’s an amazing and groundbreaking event in and of itself, and it should be cherished as a great moment in history. 

But I digress. 

So, as I was saying, in early November radio stations in Wisconsin begin playing Christmas songs. Despite this being late fall, we were listening to the Brenda Lee tune that  I just mentioned. At one point I hear Aidan‘s soft giggling in the backseat . I turned and quickly looked into the back. 

“What’s so funny, bud?”

“She swore!”

“I didn’t hear any swearing!”

“She did”

“It’s OK man, you can say what she said, you won’t get in trouble”

“Later we’ll have some fucking pie”, he chuckled.

I listened.  I could hear that too.  

At which point we both started “laughing like a bastard”, as “Drugs” Delaney would say from the underrated film,  “Outside Providence”.  

Decades later, whenever I hear that Brenda Lee classic, I still hear “Later we’ll have some fucking pie” and I have my beautiful child to thank for that. 

Listen to it, you’ll hear it. 

It really does sound like Ms. Lee is singing that word instead of “pumpkin”, and I still laugh like a bastard. The idea of ol’ Brenda changing the connotation of the song as if the pie were an irritant, as opposed to a treat is half the fun of the lyric change.  Now we just need to rock around the “shittin’ tree” and we’re good!

I love you Aidan, merry Christmas!