"Left! Left! I left my wife and 49 kids..." (Hoosier Folklore)

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I don't know what Fred Shapiro has. I'm sure Jon Lighter has something on this. I was looking through Hoosier Folklore today.


Hoosier Folklore, June 1947, vol. VI, no. 2, pg. 78:
QUERIES
By FRANCES J. BAUGHMAN
(...)
THe other query is about a cadence count used by high school students for keeping step when a group walked together. The part I remember went like this:

Left, left,
I left my wife and forty-nine kids.
That's right, right...

Does anyone remember all of this particular cadence count or other forms of cadence counts?

Bloomington, Indiana


Hoosier Folklore, September, 1947, vol. VI, no. 3, pg. 109:
CADENCE COUNTS

There have been several replies to a query by Frances J. Baughman about cadence counts (see _HF_ 6:78). THese replies indicate that the counts are widespread and varied.

Illinois

Left--
Left--
Left my wife in
Starving condition and
Nothing but johnnycakes
Left--
Left...
>From Eva H. McIntosh, Carbondale, Illinois.

Minnesota

Left! Right! Left--Left--
I left my wife
And seventeen children
In starving condition
WIth nothing but
Johnnycake left.
Was I right--
Was I right when I left?
I left my wife, etc, _da capo_, _ad inf._
>From Leslie Dae Lindau, COlordao State College of Education, Greeley, Colorado, who heard it about thirty years ago.

Indiana
1.
Miss Caroline Dunn learned this one in a Girl Scout troop about the time of World War I.

Left, Left
Left a wife and forty-six children.
Don't you think that I had a
Right, right?

2.
This one Miss Dunn learned from Sue WHite, who remembers it from high school days, four or five years ago.

Left, Left
I left my wife and twenty-one kids
Back home in bed in a starving condition
Without any gingerbread
Left, left.
(Pg. 110--ed.)
First I hired her
Then I fired her
THen, by golly
She left
Left, left...

3.
About this one Miss Dunn remarks: "We liked this one for keeping step and regarded it as a little wild because of the 'swear words' in it."
Keep step, keep step,
Keep step, gosh darn it, keep step.
You've got it, now keep it,
Don't lose it, doggone it,
Keep step, doggone it, keep step.
>From Miss Caroline Dunn, WIlliam Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indianapolis, Indiana.

4. Paul G. Brewster says he remembers using thjis one during the first World War. The "hayfoot, strawfoot," he adds, comes from Civil War days when green country recruits often did not know their right feet from their left. The drill sergeants had them tie hay to their left feet and straw on their right feet.

Hayfoot, strawfoot
Belly full of bean soup
Left--
Left--
Left my wife
And fourteen children.
Did I do right--
Right--
Right when I left?
>From Paul G. Brewster, Bloomington, Indiana.


Hoosier FOlklore, June 1948, Vol. VII, no. 2, pg. 54:
CADENCE COUNT
By EVA H. McINTOSH

The following was obtained from a friend in Equality, Illinois.

Left--
Left--
Left my wife and
Fifty-nine kids in the
Middle of the kitchen in a
Starving condition with
Nothing but gingerbread
Left--
Did I do right,
--right by me
Country but wrong by my
Family. By gosh I
Had a good job but I
Left--
Left-- (repeat)
(For other forms of cadence Counts see _HF_ 6:109-110.--The Editor.)
Carbondale, Illinois

Pg. 57:
MORE CADENCE COUNTS
By GRACE PARTRIDGE SMITH AND JANE MILLER

Since the publication of several cadence counts in _HF_ 6:109-10, September, 1947, two more variants have been submitted, from Indiana and Iowa.

_Iowa_

Contributed by Grace Partridge Smith who says, "My daughter, Ilse SMith Addicks, of Washington, D. C., remembers the following count from her school days in Iowa City, Iowa. SHe dates it from about 1912-1914 when she was in the grades. COming home from school four and five girls would link arms, stomp along the sidewalk, singing the cadence as indicated."

Left, left--
I had to be home
When I left!--
I left my wife
And seventeen children
All in a starving condition
WIth nothing but brown--bread--
Left, left--
I had to be home
When I left!--

_Indiana_

Contributed by Jane Miller, Kokomo, Indiana, w2ho learned the following count near West Middleton, in Howard COunty.

Left, left--
Left my wife and forty-five kids
The old gray mare and the peanut stand.
Did I do Right? Right!
Right from the country
Where I came from.
Haystack, Strawstack!
Skip by jingo.
Left, left--