Alright, this post will be of no interest to most of you...except maybe my dad. When I was very little, my dad's parents, Grandma and Grandpa to me, sang a little song when they pushed my brother on the swings or the see-saw. It went like this:
"See-saw, knock on the door/Who's there?/Grandpa/What do you want/A glass of beer/GET OUT OF HERE YOU DRUNKEN BUM!"
Weird, right? But, it was a part of my childhood and I sing a version of it to my kids - we change the people and drink accordingly, if Mom's at the door, it's a diet coke, Dad it's coffee, Liam it's chocolate milk, Finn it's booby-milk, and so on. Then we shout, "Get out of here you silly clown."
ANYway, I was picking up books off the floor of my office. Liam had been exploring MY collection (ug). I have a facsimile edition of the 1833 Mother Goose's Melodies. I randomly opened it this morning to a page with the following rhyme: "Who comes here?/A Grenadier/What do you want?/A pot of beer/Where's your money?/I forgot/GET YOU GONE, YOU DRUKEN SOT!"
As soon as I read it I could hear my grandparents singing. Isn't that weird? A grenadier is some kind of specialized soldier from the 17th century, according to Wiki, by the way.
Well, there ya go. A mostly pointless post. In other news, FINN IS OFFICIALLY WALKING. Yep. Yesterday not so much, today, walking all over.
This is great! I was trying to find the history of another nursery rhyme that is a family tradition for my friend's family. It goes: See-saw knock on the door/who's there?/it's /what do you want?/a bottle of beer/get out of here you bum, you bum, you bum!
ReplyDeleteCool how these things get passed down across generations.