Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter, Paul and Mary

Misty memories, Where Only the Song is Certain

Released January 1963. UK Chart peak: Did not chart

I can never hear this song and not imagine one of two scenarios.

In the first one, I see myself as a young boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old, pottering about the one-room lodgings we lived in as a family back then, loving it as it came out of the speaker on the radio.

The lyrics were a place of magical fantasy and escape, and Honah Lee must’ve been a place of wonders. It must’ve been great to have a Dragon like Puff for a friend.

In the second scenario, this song is forever twinned with what I think of as my earliest memory.

I’m very young, three or four years old, walking with my nan, on my dad’s side, along the prom in Portobello. The day is misty, and I can smell the sea. At some point, I find a small toy car on the window cill of one of the seaside shops.

The paint on the cill is a faded pale blue, cracked and flaky, and I ask if I can take the toy car home.

“No, you just leave it there, James, that belongs to another wee boy and he’ll be looking for it later”.

My earliest memories of this song would’ve been from the late 60s, but I do wonder about Puff. Was it playing on the radio in that shop as I looked at that toy car, and was it a misty day?

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