It would seem logical to begin an essay on nursery rhymes with childhood. But I want to begin instead with old age—or, to be more precise, the link between childhood and old age.
My wife’s grandmother recently passed away. A few days before her passing, my wife and 2-year-old daughter were visiting her and my wife’s mother, and somehow they came to the subject of traditional nursery rhymes. We’d been teaching some to my daughter. My little girl began to prattle away, reciting several rhymes for her grandmother and great-grandmother.
