Puff the Magic Dragon

This oldie runs back to ancient times. And, since this the 21st Century and I was in grade school near the middle of the 20th Century, I’m not going to try to tie this memory to a specific date. My brain is likely way too aged for accuracy beyond a year or two. The best I can do is that it was somewhere between 5-8 grade.

One day, our ride home from school was late. So I was wandering around the halls of Fir Grove Adventist School and I heard a very interesting sound. It was the radio in the office of the third and fourth grade teacher, Miss Natterstadt (I’m not sure of the spelling). She was not my teacher but her door was always open when school wasn't in session.

She was young, likely right out of college and was very chipper and fun! I remember her smiling a lot! And this song fit right in. It was Peter Paul and Mary singing “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

I remember walking in her class room and standing in the door of her office listening. She walked in behind me and we both listened the to song and I wandered out of the room. To this day, I can’t hear this song without that moment popping into my head. I’ve no idea why that memory is so durable. The best I’ve come up with was that was a pop (well, folk) song being listened to without judgement of it’s possible moral content…by an adult!

Every piece of popular culture that I had encountered up to that point was experienced through the lens of my fundamentalist upbringing. Miss Natterstadt had, for some reason, no need to figure out if this was an “approved” song.
We just stood and enjoyed it.