James McMurtry's 'Memorial Day'

I have yet to figure out what this song is all about, other than a visit to grandma's on Memorial Day. McMurtry is a pretty good singer/songwriter, and his Memorial Day is worth a listen. Mary gets a switching about half way through.

Daddy's in the big chair sippin' on a cold beer
Grandma's cuttin' a switch
She overheard Mary cussin' her brother
Called him a son of a bitch
She got a good green limb off a sweet gum sapling
Man that's bound to sting

But Mary don't cry just stands there and takes it
Doesn't seem to feel a thing
No Mary don't cry, you know she's a big girl
Wonder what made her so mad
She takes those licks looking in through the den door
Staring right straight at her dad

To put it in context:
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/mcmurtry-james/memorial-day-20599.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLjj7FD-CAo

I think that song is about family, about how families get together even though they have arguments that last for years - that they drive for hours to to be together and then spend half the time screaming at each other over things that happened years ago. The narrator doesn't really understand it but two of the older kids (his siblings?) assure him that this is just what happens when they all get together.

Mary doesn't cry during her switching, she just looks at her dad with betrayal in her eyes - accusing him of not intervening to stop the switching (the narrator doesn't quite get that so wonders why Mary is so mad). This becomes a new wound, and on the long drive home no one talks about what happened. Mary, and probably her mother, are too angry with dad's non-action to speak.

Thanks for pointing out the song - I'd encountered the singer before but hadn't stumbled over this one. Another song (We Can't Make It Here) from the same album was used during the closing credits of a Sopranos episode - and is a bitter account of the state of the nation. James McMurtry is good at writing observational songs.

Goodgulf

Thanks, Goodgulf, for the youtube link to the song. I have a theory as to why Dad does not intervene in Mary's switching. Maybe he fears being next for not raising her not to cuss.

I think you are correct about the family stuff, Goodgulf.

What I can't figure is why grandma is so pissed over Mary calling Joe a son-of-a-bitch. Since when is that enough of a transgression to warrant a switching? Mary is a big girl, after all. In my imagination she looks like Amy Adams.(BTW my mother never saw the irony in calling me a s.o.b.)

Is there something going on between Joe and Mary we don't know about? Maybe Joe is a cross dresser. When he wore the same dress to the Prom as Mary the trouble started, "Joe! You dumb son-of-a-bitch, you know you look washed out in magenta. What were you thinking?"

"Mary! What did you call your brother? You know he is very sensitive. You are in BIG trouble, young lady!"

And why was grandma so much more fun before grandpa kicked the bucket? She used to take the kids fishing. I can't figure where Mary and Joe fit into the picture. Whose kids are they and why do they live with grandma?

Dad seems the cold fish here for sure. Sipping a cold beer while Mary gets her bottom warmed and hardly paying attention. Beth83 might be right about Dad.

Wait a minute...Maybe Mary and Joe are grandma's kids from a love triangle involving grandma, grandpa, and and old war buddy of grandpa's. Audie Murphy (the old war buddy) came to visit and while grandpa was passed out from drinking vodka (post traumatic stress syndrome) he and grandma got it on in the hayloft resulting in the twin births 9 months later of Joe and Mary.

Years later when grandpa learned the truth he attacked grandma with an axe but grandma shot him and covered up the whole thing. A pair of coveralls stuffed with straw and wearing a baseball cap rides a tractor out in the South 40. Grandma tells everyone it is grandpa. In reality she disposed of grandpa's body by weighing him down with cinder blocks and dropping him off his bass boat in the middle of the lake. Now she no longer fishes because of the bad memories the lake brings back.

Mary has a raging spanking fetish she inherited from Dad, but Dad is not a complete shit-head, so he guzzles beer while pretending to ignore Mary's spanking to save his half-sister further embarrassment, although in secret he has always dreamed of paddling her plummy backside.

Dad and Mom don't talk on the way home because Mom caught Dad choking his chicken in the bathroom while reliving Mary's bare bottom switching in his imagination. (I added the bare bottom bit for effect) Mom you see, had a spanking of her own in mind, but that is another song.

Whew!

Am I making too much out of this whole scenario?

Rap

I think the simplest explanation is that Mary has heard Dad use those words and worst in family situations and doesn't understand why she should be getting a switching for doing what he does.

That's quite possible, especially as the children were behind the tool shed overhearing a heated argument in the kitchen among the adults in the family. IMHO it's pretty obvious that "Dad" failed to intervene against "Grandma" to prevent Mary's switching, for whatever reason--maybe he felt that Mary deserved to be switched for her bad language (which would be rather hypocritical if she'd picked up its usage from him) or perhaps he was intimidated by "Grandma," either by her sharp tongue or her ability to cut another switch to use on him.

It strikes me that "Mom" ended up sharing Mary's contempt for her father's non-involvement, it was apparently a rather tense drive back home... --C.K.