Story Behind The Song

As a Children's Music Specialist working to provide teachers with a tool--music--to enhance the learning process, this song was written to help children visualize their ancestors traveling across the oceans to a new land. With them, they brought traditio

Song Description

Although many of our ancestors traveled from many different countries, they brought with them many traditions and cultures that have been passed on to us, generation to generation. There is a bond across the oceans.

Lyrics

GREAT-GRANDFATHER?S TREASURE


1. To the west lay a land that said simply
?Come, bring your dream along?
And my great-grandfather answered
Sailed oceans from far beyond
The journey was long and treacherous
The year 1859
And few his humble possessions
But his heart held treasure inside

For from the past is born the present
From traditions so precious and old
The love and the wisdom generations unfold
Far across oceans
This his heart would hold

2. My father learned watching his father
Each made a way
Building strong foundations on generations alive to this day
Stories of great-grandparents
Feasts in the old country ways
And songs and laughter and memories
These remain

Still from the past is born the present
From traditions so precious and old
The love and the wisdom generations unfold
Far across oceans
These our hearts will hold

3. And I am the next generation
With ideas modern and new
More than a hundred years have passed since
great-grandfather sailed through
Yet binding family together
Is love passed and shared
And long as we remember tradition will carry us there

Still from the past is born the present
From traditions so precious and old
The love and the wisdom generations unfold
And far across time
These our hearts will hold




Words and Music by Melanie A. White
© 2001 Melanie Ann White.