Memorable words

Dad taught us a couple of songs.  I actually remember three, but one is too politically incorrect to pass my lips.  I’m sorry I still remember it.  He also knew all the words to

A capital ship for an ocean trip
was the "Walloping Window Blind."
No wind that blew dismayed her crew
or troubled the Captain’s mind.
The man at the wheel was made to feel
contempt for the wildest blo-o-ow,
Tho' it often appeared when the weather had cleared,
That he'd been in his bunk below.

I think our childhood favorite, the one all three of us still recite by memory, is

We had a cow down on our farm

Golly ain’t that queer.

She gave milk without alarm

Golly ain’t that queer.

One day she drank from a frozen stream,

Froze her tail like an iron beam.

And ever since she gives ice cream.

Golly ain’t that queer.

To the tune of Old MacDonald.

I was looking through Jan’s stash of Em and Laura’s art work the other day, and found Em’s attempt to get an Uncle Tom ditty down on paper before she forgot the words.  What a girl.  I should have written out what I heard from my elders.  So much less remembering, so much more writing.

Thinking about an eight year old reciting this over and over between the wood pile and the house, desparate to get to the note book and write it out, makes me smile.