by Matthew Cobb
You may have seen this – it’s been going the rounds for a few years now, but it hasn’t been posted here before. Here are Woody’s new year resolutions for 1943. [JAC: he was 30.]
They all seem pretty good to me, notably #3. Click to enlarge.
JAC: I’ve added a transcript for the myopic. And if you don’t know who Woody Guthrie is, Ceiling Cat help you!
NEW YEAR’S RULIN’S
1. WORK MORE AND BETTER
2. WORK BY A SCHEDULE
3. WASH TEETH IF ANY
4. SHAVE
5. TAKE BATH
6. EAT GOOD – FRUIT – VEGETABLES – MILK
7. DRINK VERY SCANT IF ANY
8. WRITE A SONG A DAY
9. WEAR CLEAN CLOTHES – LOOK GOOD
10. SHINE SHOES
11. CHANGE SOCKS
12. CHANGE BED CLOTHES OFTEN
13. READ LOTS GOOD BOOKS
14. LISTEN TO RADIO A LOT
15. LEARN PEOPLE BETTER
16. KEEP RANCHO CLEAN
17. DON’T GET LONESOME
18. STAY GLAD
19. KEEP HOPING MACHINE RUNNING
20. DREAM GOOD
21. BANK ALL EXTRA MONEY
22. SAVE DOUGH
23. HAVE COMPANY BUT DON’T WASTE TIME
24. SEND MARY AND KIDS MONEY
25. PLAY AND SING GOOD
26. DANCE BETTER
27. HELP WIN WAR – BEAT FASCISM
28. LOVE MAMA
29. LOVE PAPA
30. LOVE PETE
31. LOVE EVERYBODY
32. MAKE UP YOUR MIND
33. WAKE UP AND FIGHT
I really like this list!
He was over 30 when he wrote this.
He was born in mid-1912, so it seems that he’d be 30 in Jan. 1943.
What I was inferring is that this doesn’t seem to be written by an adult.
Why do you say that?
It seems juvenile to me.
I think you should see this list in the context of someone amusing himself with boyish humor. Remember, he was a song writer. To write good songs – especially in the folk tradition – you have to be in touch with a simple inner self, free from the complexities that sometimes make adult writing tedious.
Resolutions in general seem juvenile to me. If you want to make a change, just do it. January 1st is as arbitrary a date as any.
I’d agree about resolutions. That list is very repetitive and seems simplistic, if not naive. Most of those things, I would have thought, should just happen naturally, not need writing down. If he was consciously having fun with his image, OK.
In terms of his music, of which I admittedly know little, ‘write a song a day’ doesn’t sound conducive to quality.
cr
Juvenile? OK, at 19 he could potentially have 3 (legal) kids by “Mary”, but “Wake Up and Fight” sounds like someone expecting to go into the military (and potentially die) in the very near future.
Which, I suppose at the time, was a predictable outcome for most 17 and 18 year-olds. Most males – did the US have women in the forces at that time?
Yeah, I don’t think it’s juvenile either. I think it’s just simple and people sometimes mistake simplicity for immaturity.
The US armed forces had women volunteers during War 2. In the Army they formed the Women’s Army Corp (and were known by the acronym WACs); in the Navy, they were known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service).
Many other women aided the war effort by taking over industrial jobs vacated by men who joined the service. That’s what gave rise to the “Rosie the Riveter” icon.
Pretty much the same as here then – no front-line women, but plenty going on in the background. And no small numbers killed in – for example – air base work.
My mom was in the Women’s Army Corp. She was among the first ten or so women to join in Chicago when the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) became the WACs. The older version of the Corps was not actually part of the Army.
She didn’t talk much about it when I was a kid but I do have some great old photos of her with her fellow soldiers from those days. One with an owl sitting on her shoulder!
Woody would frequently adopted a homespun persona when writing songs (or prose) — similar to the way Randy Newman does now (and as many other great writers have done through the years). He may well have written this list to himself in the voice of that character. I think it would be a mistake to interpret that as a lack of mental acuity or sophisticated thinking on Woody’s part.
This. (Sorry, Jerry. 😀 )
This is just Woody being Woody. Plenty of sly humor.
27 (s.l.), 31, 33! I’ll go along with those.
15: LEARN PEOPLE BETTER is interesting. Does he mean “teach” or does he mean “understand people better”?
I would guess the latter one
Maybe he meant “get to know people better?”
The latter, I’m pretty sure. The learn/teach (and borrow/lend) substitutions are something you hear in certain upper-Great Lakes dialects — or what you Canucks probably think of as the US “bridge and tunnel” crowd. 🙂
Thanks Matthew!
Having truly appreciated Woody’s music and lyrics over the years, this is the first time I have seen this list. I think I’ll adopt it as mine – other than the “Beat Fascism” one. Unless I can interpret that as don’t vote for Trump, in which case I can even adopt that one.
Quick follow up. “Dance Better,” I think that one may just lie in the area of “the rules of physics say no!”
That one turned out to be tragically ironic, given that Huntington’s Disease was originally called Huntington’s chorea, or simply chorea, named that for the dance-like movements it induces in some victims.
Yes it was such a tragic end for someone that seemed like such a nice guy. I mostly new of Woody through his son, Arlo who also struck me as a really nice guy.
“New York thruway is closed, man. Lotta freaks!” — not to mention “Alice’s Restaurant” and “City of New Orleans.” I like Arlo a lot, too.
Woody had “This Machine Kills Fascists” written on his guitar. It was during the war, and Mussolini and Hitler controlled Europe.
I’m pretty sure Woody would approve of your adapting his motto to use against the Storm Trumpster.
Click to enlarge so you can see the pictures he drew to go along with each resolution. To the “juvenile” comment: I don’t know what level of education Woody got through (will have to Google/Wiki that), but it may have been only grammar school in a poor, back woods area. That would also go along with a career in “folk” music. He became a folk music great. So, Juvenile, with all your advantages, what have you become? [Moderator may remove this comment for rudeness-I plead guilty]
Yes, that was a nasty, uncalled for comment. You don’t know me and should not be judging me based on one comment of my opinion. You should be banned from this site.
I found it either a very annoying remark or the remark of someone who knew nothing of Woody’s music, character, and/or political leanings and how he acted on them.
Or possibly, of someone with no sense of humor. Especially given the whacky cartoon drawings that accompany the “rulin’s.”
Sorry, Bob. It did sit wrongly with at least two of us who revere his memory.
With respect, Bob, I have to say that your comment read to me as it did to Diane. I don’t know what exactly qualifies things as “juvenile” to you but the word doesn’t seem to fit the Woody Guthrie I’m familiar with.
I’m sure there are some who would call John Lennon’s doodlings juvenile, too.
Most of those drawings (that I can make out) are hilarious! I esp. love the ones for “have company but don’t waste time,” and “beat fascism.”
Yes and I thought they were somewhat whimsical. It’s not juvenile to have a sense of humour and a sense of whimsy and it certainly isn’t stupid as is also implied in some of these comments.
I like this list, and it shows what a down-to-earth & humble man Woody was, yet someone who thought about things deeply & cared about people. He had a rough go of it as a youngster, so we need to cut him some slack in regards to education. In 1942 when the list was made, the country was just beginning to recover from the depression (let alone the dust bowl in the plains states) with the buildup for the war.
Woody was nothing if not practical. One look at this list and you know that he was, well, “bound for glory” (the title of the book he released the same year he wrote these resolutions).
Thanks for posting this, Matthew!
I never make any ,he makes 33, wonder how many he kept.lol