"Shut your eyes"

[Baker, John]

        The version I grew up with (southern Ky., 1960s) was

Hold out your hands [or open your mouth] and close your eyes
And I'll give you something to make you wise.

        The wisdom was that you shouldn't close your eyes when someone is
putting something in your hands or mouth.  Typically, for the hands, it
would be a mouse or a toad.

John Baker


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laurence Horn [SMTP:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 9:37 PM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: "Shut your eyes"
>
> At 8:25 PM -0400 8/11/01, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> >
> >SHUT-YOUR-EYES-AND-OPEN-YOUR-MOUTH--NYHT, 20 March 1941, pg. 16,
> >col. 6: "It takes the faith of youth to draw up the first sip, like
> >the old "shut-your-eyes-and-open-your-mouth" affair which might
> >bring a June bug or a lollipop."
> >
> This one was turned around in my own childhood (late 40's onward) to
> allow for the completion of the couplet, as follows:
>
> Open your mouth and shut your eyes
> And you will have a big surprise
>
> larry