Had your fill of the holidays, and ready for 2014 to take over?
January first is filled with promises and goals. Lose weight, stop biting your nails…sound familiar? But how about ‘take a bath’ or ‘change socks’?
Those are some simple resolutions made more than 70 years ago by folk singer and Okie-turned-Angeleno Woody Guthrie. When Guthrie’s wife asked for help with her resolutions, it inspired him to write his own. His resolutions, written in a simple notebook in 1942, were made public a few years ago.
Barry Ollman is a longtime collector of Guthrie memorabilia, and he’s a member of the Advisory Board of the Woody Guthrie Foundation. Ollman says Guthrie was more than just a singer, he was an interesting person who loved to write about everything. Guthrie carried a notebook with him everywhere and would just write about what was interesting.
These 33 resolutions are often shared and re-shared on the internet every year, perhaps because they capture Guthrie’s hopeful and optimistic ideals. Ollman says these ideals are exemplified by Guthrie’s famous song, “This Land is Your Land.”
1943 did turn out to be a good year for Woody Guthrie. That was the year his autobiography, “Bound for Glory” was published. We also hope that was the year he remembered to “Wash teeth if any.”
What are your 33 New Year’s resolutions?
-Pai En Yu contributed to this story.