Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
June 27, 2007 - Found Rhyme
I have a fairly busy afternoon ahead of me, so here's a quick found item that I collected this morning while walking Una. It seems to be the sort of rhyme or song that children teach each other, which tend to be transmitted orally and therefore to undergo slight changes over time and across regions.
Usually, these sorts of rhymes or songs are funny, frequently making use of naughty bathroom humor. This one is fairly tame. The funny part is that someone seems to have broken it into parts, as if it will be performed somewhere. It almost seems like parts are missing from the story, which can be a function of the passing on of these rhymes.
It reads:
This girl I love her is the girl I like
This girl I love her is the girl I like
This girl I love her is the girl I like
This girl I love her is the girl I like
This girl I love her is the girl I likeBrian - I took her to the motel
But she wanted to go to the hotel
I clipped her toenails.
And then my nose fell.Repeat: The girl I love
Ernest - I really do love her
She loves me
Under the Christmas tree
I rubbed her feetRepeat: The girl I love
Jared - I love her so, she means the world to me.
I never wanna loose her, but she slipped
away from me.Repeat: The girl I love
Ernest - I walked to her and my
house, I ran upstairs
I opened up the door and said my prayersRepeat: The girl I love
Yech
Jared - We got back together then we
broke up repeat 6X We got back
together then we got married
Then came Mike, Jared and
Mary. Ha Ha Ha!And don't
forget Sherry!!!
If you, like me, are fascinated by the oral culture of children, as manifested in rhymes and songs, read the excellent book, Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood by Josepha Sherman and T.K.F. Weisskopf.
Moral:
Sometimes oral culture is passed along by writing it down.
Copyright
2006 by Alyce Wilson
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