Children's chant

[Jonathan Lighter]

Good work, Mike!  The World War I version was usually,

The YMCA went over the top,
They thought they heard a nickel drop.

The YMCA canteens in France were rather commonly resented for charging doughboys for doughnuts, coffee, cigarettes, etc.

Another was,

The mademoiselle went over the top,
To rob the soldiers as they dropped.


JL

JL

Michael McKernan <mckernan at LOCALNET.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Michael McKernan
Subject: Re: Children's chant
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Larry Scroggs wrote:

>The first Marine went over the wall
>Parle vous
>The second Marine went over the wall
>Parle vous
>The third Marine went over the wall
>Got hit in the ass by a cannon ball
>Inkey dinkey parle vous
>(There were several different verses of this)

Also 1950s; interservice rivalry

The first Marine went over the top
Parlez vous?
The first Marine went over the top
Parlez vous?
The first Marine went over the top
To pick up the nickels the infantry dropped
Hinky dinky parlez vous.

Michael McKernan


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