En-Uk's "Green Tangerine"

My Green Tangerine

En-Uk Sequoya Hwang

My twelve-year-old son maintains an art blog, as most readers already know, and a couple of days ago, he couldn't think of anything to draw. My wife had just gotten delivery of a large box of tangerines, however, and that reminded me of an old, private joke of mine, a wordplay that I'd kept to myself for at least forty-two years but was finally ready to share with the world, so I told En-Uk to draw a green tangerine, which he did and which you see above. I then had him link to that weird sixties song by The Lemon Pipers from 1968, "My Green Tambourine," as I also did above under the image with the words "My Green Tangerine, that being my quirky, punning joke. Just in case any readers are interested, here are the lyrics:

Drop your silver in my tambourine
Help a poor man fill his pretty dream
Give me pennies I'll take anything
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine

Watch the jingle jangle start to shine
Reflections of the music that is mine
When you toss a coin you'll hear it sing
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine

Drop a dime before I walk away
Any song you want I'll gladly play
Money feeds my music machine
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine
Listen and I'll play

I used to sing this to myself, replacing the words "my green tambourine" with the words "my green tangerine" and smile at my little jokey rebellion against the sixties.

I was young, I was American . . .