Let the Rest of the World Go By

I got into my first Christmas shopping traffic jam after work today. Modesto is the shopping mecca for those who live within 30 miles radius of it. The Vintage Faire Mall and acres of other shops and eats like Best Buy, Target, Applebees are built parallel to the state route. The off ramp to the shopping area is also where I exit.

Like many others commuters and shoppers, I had to inch along toward the Beckwith exit on State Route 99 South. It took me about half an hour crawling along the highway shoulder before I could get on the off ramp. It tested the patience for all who shared the same fate. Especially for someone such as I who drove a stick-shift truck. Cluctch-and-go, Clutch-and-stop. Amazingly, everyone in the queue seemed to accept or resign to the madess. Far from the maddening crowd we weren't.

While lurching along the road, my mind was disjointed and out of frame with the rousing Saint-Saen's Second Symphony spiriting from the classical music airwave. I was humming an old 1919 tune - "Let the Rest of the World Go By." It assuaged the stress of being stuck in traffic on an already darken sky.

I like this song. I hope you will too. Redford and Streep danced to this tune in the 1985 film "Out of Africa." Here are the words and the MIDI I've prepared for your singing and listening pleasure. J. Keirn Brennan and Ernest R. Ball wrote the words and music to this old standard.

Click on the song title link below to play or download the music.

Let The Rest of the World Go By

With someone like you, a pal good and true
I'd like to leave it all behind and go and find
Some place that's known to God alone
Just a spot to call our own
We'll find perfect peace, where joys never cease
Out there beneath a kindly sky
We'll build a sweet little nest somewhere in the west
And let the rest of the world go by

With someone like you, a pal good and true
I'd like to leave it all behind and go and find
Some place that's known to God alone
Just a spot to call our own
We'll find perfect peace, where joys never cease
Out there beneath a kindly sky
We'll build a sweet little nest somewhere in the west
And let the rest of the world go by