Puff the Magic Dragon - is there something wrong with me that it made me cry as a child?

[Teabay]

I just heard the song 'Puff the Magic Dragon' and it made me sob. I couldn't bear to hear it as a child either at school - same tearful effect.
What's wrong with me?

Made me cry too

As a child?!? It makes me cry now! 🤣 Little Tin Soldier (or whatever its called) too! Some people are just more empathetic / emotional.

I seriously can't bear to listen to it. Bit moist eyed just thinking of it.

Always made me cry. Avoid it now just in case.
That and Mickey Marley's Roundabout

I cannot believe how many parodies there are on YouTube. If you do want to see it in a different light, this is probably the best one:

The song from the snowman makes me very upset and always has done. I have to leave the room when the film is on as I just want to break down and sob

The children’s programme bing also makes me tear up as well for some reason. No idea why

OP, that's so strange - I told DP this evening that it's a sad song and makes me cry too!

Oh god. I NEVER cry. I didn’t even cry at ET. In 14 years DH hadn’t seen me cry. Till someone bought dd a beautiful PTMD book.

I made it to page 7.

Dd knows never to ask me to read it, but to go to DH instead.

It is a million times worse as my dad died recently and now it reminds me him as well. I’m tearing up now just thinking of the first line.

I used to sob at Puff. In fact I still do. It's weird NOT to.

The song from the snowman makes me very upset and always has done. I have to leave the room when the film is on as I just want to break down and sob

Oh no. No no. Don't go near The Snowman. Couldn't care less about Puff, but don't go Raymond Briggs on me or I'll be single handedly ending any heatwave-related water shortage...

It still brings tears to my eyes. I also remember at school a teacher found me sobbing at my desk. I was reading a story about an Irish King who had a supremely loyal wolfhound. After the King married, his wife produced a son, The dog adored the boy and wouldn't leave his side.

The King came home one day, went to the nursery and found the prince's cradle upturned and blood on the blankets and on the hound's mouth. He drew his sword and killed the hound. Then, he turned the cradle over and found the little boy safe and sound inside and a dead wolf by the little one's side. I have never forgotten this tale (as you can all tell!). My love affair with Irish Wolfhounds began then.

I always cry when I hear that one too. There’s a very clever teenage girl who busks at my local market on a Saturday and has worked out the effect on middle aged women so includes it regularly in her repertoire. I suspect that song alone is worth two hours serving burgers if she made her money another way.

We had a blow up dinghy when I was a tiny child that I named Puff. Firstly for the sound of inflating it, and also because my daddy took me into sea caves in it to look for Puff the Magic Dragon. Fond memories add to the tear factor in my case.

Oh this song Has always made me tear up. My dad used to sing it to us as kids so it reminds me of that in a sort of poignant way but I ‘rediscovered’ it recently when thinking of things to sing to my little boy (10 months) and now, being a mum, the idea of loss of innocence / little boys growing up has given it a whole new level of sadness!!

DS2 adores Puff. It’s a good night when I can get through it without a lump in my throat.

My mum used to tell me that Jackie Paper grew up and had a son of his own, and that little boy then became Puff's friend.

I reckon Julia Donaldson must have had the same thought and then applied it to Paper Dolls (which always makes me sob as well).

MIL bought DS a book when he was a baby called "love you forever" I remember reading it to him and I cried and cried, it's such a beautiful story about a little boy growing up. DS is 18 and I still well up when I think of that story. The mum continues to 'love the boy forever' even when he's a grown up and one day the tables turn and the boy goes to see the mum and says the same rhyme.
If you can read it I really urge you to - it's a short book but unforgettable.

@cheese even the thought of that wells me up! "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be"

Definitely makes me cry along with ‘two little boys’ I had them on the same Children’s tape compilation (showing my age now!).
The book that has upset me most though was Charlotte’s web, apparently the first time I read it when I got to the end I came running outside to find mum who was in the garden crying so hard she’s thought something awful had happened to me or my sister!

Although bizarrely the Clean Bandit song Rockabye had me in tears in traffic the other day...

I went on holiday to Malta when I was about 37. Went into a bar where the night's entertainment was customers putting in requests for songs they liked when they were children - we were told: "you'll go home feeling 40 yrs younger!" That was a bold statement, given that I was 37, lol. My DH, unbeknown to me put in a request for Puff the Magic Dragon! I was mortified as everyone was looking around with a 'who the feck asked for that song'. Ahh, fond memories. 'Bright Eyes' by Art Gurfunkel does it for me tho.

I have had to ban my son from reading it as it ends in hours of tears from him.

My parents bought me a Jackanory type story tape and its accompanying book as a child.

Joss Ackland read Oscar Wildes The Selfish Giant for this tape and that made me cry.

Another story that did the same was The Little Match Girl.

It makes me cry as well. My Mum used to sing it to me and she would noticeably well up. So now it makes me cry.

The mag and tape was Story Teller Just found the recording of Joss Ackland doing it on youtube.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_Teller_(magazine)