Harper Valley PTA

By Rollie Lawson

Harper Valley is a roiling hotbed of secrets. Now those secrets are slopping over onto a widow and her daughter. See the history and how she reacts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312705494

Book preview

Copyright

Harper Valley PTA

Copyright © 2023 Rollie Lawson

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-312-70549-4

Prologue

Harper Valley PTA

I wanna tell you all a story 'bout

A Harper Valley widowed wife

Who had a teenage daughter

Who attended Harper Valley Junior High

Well, her daughter came home one afternoon

And didn't even stop to play

And she said, Mom, I got a note here from the Harper Valley PTA

Well, the note said, "Mrs. Johnson

You're wearin' your dresses way too high

It's reported you've been drinking

And a-running 'round with men and goin' wild

And we don't believe you oughta be a-bringin' up

Your little girl this way"

And it was signed by the Secretary

Harper Valley PTA

Well, it happened that the PTA was gonna meet

That very afternoon

And they were sure surprised

When Mrs. Johnson wore her miniskirt into the room

And as she walked up to the blackboard

I can still recall the words she had to say

She said, "I'd like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley PTA

Well, there's Bobby Taylor sittin' there

And seven times he's asked me for a date

And Mrs. Taylor sure seems to use a lotta ice

Whenever he's away

And Mr. Baker can you tell us why

Your secretary had to leave this town?

And shouldn't Widow Jones be told to keep

Her window shades all pulled completely down.

Well, Mr. Harper couldn't be here

'Cause he stayed too long at Kelly's Bar again

And if you smell Shirley Thompson's breath

You'll find she's had a little nip of gin

And then you have the nerve to tell me

You think that as the mother I'm not fit

Well, this is just a little Peyton Place

And you're all Harper Valley hypocrites"

No, I wouldn't put you on because it really did

It happened just this way

The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA

The day my mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA

Writer: Tom T. Hall

Singer: Jeannie C. Riley

Copyright 1968, Unichappell Music Inc. o/b/o Morris Music Inc.

***

Harper Valley PTA was a major hit in 1968 for singer Jeannie C. Riley. Written by singer/songwriter Tom T. Hall, it ended up as Number One on both the Billboard Hot Country Singles and the Billboard Hot 100 (the pop music chart). It debuted at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100; a week later it was at number 7, the fastest rise in the decade.

Lyrically and stylistically, the song was simple and plain, with a catchy tune and without any choruses. It proved such a hit for Riley that in future years she would sing it twice during her performances, first at the start of a show, telling her audience she knew why they were there, and then again at the end of the show. Her audiences loved it.

Harper Valley PTA told the tale of a teenaged girl who brought a note home from school to her widowed mother. The PTA was complaining that the mother was wearing skirts that were too short, drinking, and running wild in the streets with men. They demanded she mend her sinful ways. That didn’t work out too well, since she barged into the next PTA meeting and read them the riot act, telling them just how much she knew about the goings on of the members of the PTA Board. Her daughter watched it all and bragged about it in the final verse.

The sins the PTA complained about fell into two categories, explicit and implicit. The explicit sin was drinking, with Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Taylor, Mister Harper, and Mrs. Thompson specifically named. The implicit sin involved sex, which was simply not something that could be mentioned in the 1960s. This was implied by Mrs. Johnson’s short skirts, Mister Baker’s old secretary having to move away suddenly (the implication being to either have a baby out of wedlock or to obtain an abortion), and the need for the Widow Jones to close her blinds. That sort of thing simply couldn’t be talked about in the 1960s except obliquely.

Several of the phrases and references in the song are somewhat dated, and might not be familiar to anybody who grew up in later years. First, the home refrigerators common in the ‘60s were almost invariably single door models, with a very small freezer compartment. They didn’t have automatic icemakers and had barely enough freezer space for a pair of ice cube trays. If you were going to have a party or ‘entertain’ as Mrs. Taylor does, you’d have to go out and buy bags of ice.

Another phrase that might not be understood by modern audiences is the final line, about how ‘mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA.’ It’s hardly used anymore, but ‘sock it to me’ was much more common in the late ‘60s. Most people heard it first on a very popular comedy variety show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, where it was one of the show’s catch phrases. Even Richard Nixon, then running for election as President, went on the show and asked, Sock it to me?

The final reference is to Peyton Place. Hardly remembered now, Peyton Place was a 1956 book and a 1957 movie, and then was made into a primetime soap opera in 1964. The show ended in 1969, but by then it was code for small town hidden secrets.

Anyway, this is my interpretation of an old favorite. Enjoy!

Verse 1 - Family History

I wanna tell you all a story 'bout

A Harper Valley widowed wife

Who had