My wife and I recently bought the book Puff the Magic Dragon for my son. The book is the words to the song drawn up as a childs book but the pictures caught my eye. I fondly remember the song from when I was a wee gaffer myself. It even came with a CD with 4 songs by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and his daughter.
I couldn't wait for bedtime so that I could read it to him. I popped in the CD and read the book to him (with the music). I was not disappointed but it also wasn't quite how I remembered it. I never realized just how sad the song is. Puff gets abandoned when his best friend grows up.
"Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,So Puff that mighty
dragon sadly slipped into his cave."
My son is 14 months old and a ton of fun. I really didn't need the reminder that he may grow up one day and lose his innocence.
As a child I think that I only focused on the first half of the song. Jacky Paper was cool - he had a dragon for a friend and had lots of adventures with pirates and stuff! Now as an adult my focus has changed and so has the song. I think I need to go back and revisit more of my childhood classics and see how they have changed. It is also time to share them with my son. I guess I will have to experience them again through him.
Until then I'm hoping that my son, (like his dad), never grows up completely.
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