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Perspective: A song we used to sing

A catchy tune popped into my head the other day.

Walking from one room to another I started singing, "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care ..."

I suddenly stopped. Where did that come from? And what's that next line?

"Jimmy crack corn and I don't care ... my master's gone away."

I suddenly saw myself at one of those desks with the wooden top that lifts up over a belly below. I was singing with everyone in a classroom. Then I realized I was singing about a slave.

I looked up the song lyrics. They tell a story about a blue-trail fly biting a horse that bucked off a slave master to a fatal ending. There is some debate over whether the slave let that happen and what cracking corn means. But they blamed the blue-trail fly, and Jimmy was in the clear.

I don't recall class discussion about slavery or the word "master." I probably was more curious about that blue-tail fly.

I also remember singing about the Eerie Canal and tales about Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed. I loved those stories. They helped give me a sense of pride in America.

But I did not feel that same pride again ... when that song jolted my memories. I felt a bit of shame.

But hey, we were just kids. Singing a silly song. About corn and blue-tail flies biting horses.

And some guy named Jimmy ... whose master had died. That's all. Right?

I’m Lonny Cain … and that’s my Perspective.

Lonny Cain, a graduate of the journalism program at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, has been in the newspaper business for more than 45 years. He and his wife have three sons. They live in Ottawa, where he was managing editor of the local daily newspaper for 30 years, retiring in December 2014. He continues to be a columnist for The Times in Ottawa and is pursuing other writing projects.