K is for (#AtoZChallenge)

K is for  Kathleen (#AtoZChallenge)

K is for Kathleen. When I was thinking about this blog post the words of the old song, I'll take you home again Kathleen, came into my consciousness.  When I was about five or six years old my grandmother used to drive my grandfather and his two friends home from the Criterion Hotel in George Street, Brisbane after a post-work beverage or two. One of my grandfather's friends was a man named Frank Normoyle who had a beautiful tenor voice. Frank used to sing all the way home from the city to his home in Ascot and one of my favourites was I'll take you home again Kathleen.

I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen is a popular song written by Thomas P. Westendorf in 1875. In spite of its German-American origins, it is widely mistaken to be an Irish ballad. Westendorf, then teaching at the reform school known as the Indiana House of Refuge for Juvenile Offenders in Hendricks County, Ind., wrote it – apparently – for his wife (who was, however, named Jennie). It's in the form of an "answer" to a popular ballad of the time, "Barney, Take Me Home Again," composed by Westendorf’s close friend, George W. Brown, writing under the nom de plume of George W. Persley (Wikipedia).

I find this info interesting as I was always told it was an Irish song and I'm sure Frank thought it was. His other favourite was Danny Boy.

Memories are wonderful ...