African American Folklore (2002)

[George Thompson]

> "Gettin' more ass than a toilet seat."  In movie The Deer Hunter
> (1979), cited in HDAS.

Heard from a college student in the early 1960s, in Boston.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
Date: Sunday, February 13, 2005 6:30 pm
Subject: Re: African American Folklore (2002)

> "What I mean, jelly-bean!"  NYC white kids, 1959.
>
> "Gettin' more ass than a toilet seat."  In movie The Deer Hunter
> (1979), cited in HDAS.
>
> "So skinny, when she cries the tears run down her back."
> Kingston, NY, white kid, ca1970.
>
> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------
> ------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: African American Folklore (2002)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------
>
> On Feb 12, 2005, at 2:47 AM, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
> > Subject: African American Folklore (2002)
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> > --------
> >
> > Even "I must develop my bust" is here!...ProQuest is down right now,
> > so I'll search these with Newspaperarchive.
>
> "I must develop my bust"?!!! Well, after a half-century of
> desegregation and contamination, what can one expect?
>
> More random stuff below.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
> >
> >
> > FROM MY PEOPLE:
> > 400 YEARS OF AFICAN AMERICAN FOLKLORE
> > edited by Caryl Cumber Dance
> > New York: W. W. Norton
> > 2002
> >
> > Pg. 470 (Aphorisms and Other Proverbial Sayings):
> > God don't like ugly.
> > Hard head, soft behind.
> >
> > Pg. 471:
> > You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.--Medgar Evans.
> >
> > Pg. 480:
> > _I'll Eat Hen I'm Hungry_
> > From Thomas W. Talley, _Negro Folk Rhymes_
> >
> > I'll eat when I'se hungry,
> > An' I'll rink when I'se dry;
> > An' if de whitefolks don't kill me,
> > I'll live till I die.
> >
> > In my liddle log cabin,
> > Ever since I've been born;
> > Dere hain't been no nothin'
> > 'Cept dat hard salt parch corn.
> > Pg. 481:
> > But I knows what's a henhouse,
> > An' de tucky he charve;
> > An' if old Mosser don't kill me,
> > I cain't never starve.
> >
> > _Aught's a Aughts_
> > Traditional
> >
> > An aught's a aught and a figger's a figger;
> > All for the white folks and none for the nigger.
> >
> > Pg. 509:
> > _Hambone, Hambone_
> > This traditional clapping game may be played with a partner or one
> > indiv,; slap his thigh as he recites. Additional lines may be
> > improvised.
> >
> > Hambone, Hambone, where you been?
> > Round the world and back again.
> >
> > Hambone, Hambone, what'd you do?
> > I got a train and I fairly flew.
> >
> > Hambone, Hambone, where'd you stay?
> > I met a pretty girl and I couldn't get away.
> >
> > Hambone, Hambone, where'd you go?
> > I hopped up to Miss Lucy's door.
> >
> > Hambone, Hambone, what's you see?
> > I asked Miss Lucy to marry me.
> >
> > Pg. 511:
> > _We Must, We Must, We Must_
> > From Daryl Cumber Dance, _Honey, Hush!_
> > WHen I recorded this verse on May 21, 1995, the singer told me she
> > learned it in gym class in the 1950s, but as she sang a younger
> woman> joined her, suggesting that it has passed on to the next
> generation.>
> > We must, we must, we must,
> > We must develop our bust.
> >
> > We must, we must, we must,
> > We must develop our bust.
> >
> > The bigger the better,
> > The tighter the sweater.
> > The boys are depending on us.
> >
> > Pg. 526 (Autograph Album Rhymes, from J. Mason Brewer, _Worser Days
> > and Better Times_):
> > Love all, trust few;
> > Learn to paddle your own canoe.
> >
> > Pg. 527:
> > When you marry and get out of shape,
> > Get you a girdle for $2.98.
> >
> > The Mississippi River is deep and wide;
> > Catch an alligator to the other side.
> >
> > Girls are made of sugar and spice;
> > Boys aren't made, they just shoot dice.
> >
> > When you get old and think you're sweet,
> > Take off your shoes, and smell your feet.
> >
> > I wish you luck, I wish you joy,
> > I wish you first a baby boy;
> > And when his hair beings to curl,
> > I wish you next a baby girl;
> > And when her hair begins to knot,
> > I guess you know it's time to stop.
> >
> > Ice cream city, candy state,
> > This sweet letter don't need no date.
> >
> > Up on a house top, baking a cake,
> > The way I love you is no mistake.
> >
> > Pg. 528:
> > I don't make love by the garden gate,
> > For love is blind, but the neighbors ain't.
> >
> > I've got a cute little shape, and a pretty little figure;
> > Stand back, big boys, until I get a little bigger!
> >
> > I love you once, I love you twice;
> > Baby, I love you next to Jesus Christ.
>
> I love you so much that I'd kill a brick for you.
>
> >
> > Milk is milk, cheese is cheese;
> > What is a kiss without a squeeze?
> >
> > You're my morning milk, my evening cream,
> > My all-day study, and my midnight dream.
> >
> > Roses on my shoulders, slippers on my feet;
> > I'm my mother's baby, don't you think I'm sweet?
> >
> > Apples on the shelf, peaches in the bowl,
> > Can't get a sweetheart to save my soul.
> >
> > Up on the mountain, five feet high,
> > I love you, baby, that ain't no lie.
> >
> > Pg. 529:
> > When you get married and have twenty-four,
> > Don't stop there, the Army needs lots more.
> >
> > When you get married and your husband gets drunk,
> > Put him in the trunk and sell him for junk.
> >
> > When you get married and have twenty-five,
> > Daon't call it a family, call it a tribe!
> >
> > The river is wide, the boat is floating,
> > Darling, let's marry and stop this courting!
> >
> > Ice is ice, rice is rice;
> > One day, baby, you'll be my wife.
> >
> > Apples on the table, peaches on the shelf,
> > Baby, I'm getting tired of sleeping by myself.
> >
> > When you get married and live in China,
> > Rememeber me back in old North Carolina.
> >
> > Life is sweet, life is swell,
> > But when you marry, life is hell.
> >
> > When you marry and live across the lake,
> > Send me a kiss by a rattlesnake.
> >
> > When you get married and live upstairs,
> > DOn't fall down putting on airs.
> >
> > When you marry don't marry a cook,
> > Marry a man with a fat pocketbook.
> >
> > When you marry and live across the sea,
> > Send me a cocoanut C.O.D.
> >
> > Lions in the cage, monkeys in the zoo,
> > Who wants to marry a fool like you?
> >
> > Pg. 530:
> > If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree;
>
> You're the cutest thing that I did ever see.
> I really love your peaches. Gonna shake your tree.
>
> If you don't like my peaches, don't you shake my tree.
>
> > I ain't after your man, he's after me.
> >
> > When you get married and live out west,
> > I'll send your mail by the Jigger express.
> >
> > Pg. 531 (Rhymes and Brags from Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay)
> > I'm so mean, I make medicine sick.--Neil Leifer and Thomas Hauser,
> > _Muhammad Ali Memories_
> >
> > Pg. 549:
> > _More Dozens_
> > Because the dozens is such an obscene exchange, no attempt is
> made to
> > reproduce a game here. Rather I present some carefully chosen
> standard> lines from the game.
> >
> > Yo' mama's like a bag of chips. She free to lay.
> > Yo' mama's so dumb she tripped over a cordless phone.
> > Yo' mama's so stupid it takes her two hours to watch _60 Minutes_.
> > Yo' mama's so dumb she thought she could send a voice mail by
> > screaming into a envelope.
> > Yo' mama's so bald she gets brainwashed when she takes a shower.
> >
> > Pg. 550:
> > Yo' mama's in the kitchen; yo' daddy's in jail;
> > yo' sister on de corner offering it for sale.
> >
> > _Insults_
> >
> > Happy birthday to you,
> > You belong in a zoo.
> > You look like a monkey,
> > And smell like one too!
> >
> > My name is Ran,
> > I work in the sand;
> > I'd rather be a nigger
> > Than a poor White man.
> >
> > White folks think they fine,
> > But their raggedy drawers stink just like mine.
> >
> > He is so ugly he has to _sneak_ up on a mirror.
>
> He's two shades darker than Bell's telephone. (clearly older than
> "black is beautiful" and the break-up of Ma Bell.)
>
> He's of Indian descent: Choctaw. The lightest [sc. shade of skin in
> his family] is chocolate; the darkest is tar.
>
> He's so ugly that, when he cries, the tears roll down the back of
> his head.
>
> He's so ugly that it looks like he's been in an ax fight and
> everybody had an ax but him.
>
> >
> > Pg. 551:
> > At least my mama ain't no doorknob,
> > Everybody get a turn.
> >
> > Least my mama ain't no railroad track,
> > Lay out all over the country.
> >
> > _Retorts_
> >
> > Tell the truth, snaggle tooth.
> > What you mean, jelly bean?
>
> See what I mean, jelly bean?
> You heard what I said, nappy head.
> Step out on the patio, daddy-o.
> Make like Ezzard and hit the desert.
> >
> > Pg. 552:
> > See you later, Alligator.
> > After while, Crocodile.
> >
> > I dig all jive.
> > That's the reason I stay alive.
> >
> > Your eyes may shine, your teeth may grit,
> > But none of this food will you git.
>
> Baby, I'm 500% more man.
> I lay more pipe than a plumber can.
>
> After I take a leak, I don't shake it off.
> I take my left foot and kick it off.
>
> She got mo' ass than a toilet seat. (Said in response to the
> previous observation) Better mo' ass than no ass.
>
> >
> >
> > (NEWSPAPERARCHIVE)
> > Charleroi Mail Friday, December 01, 1950 Charleroi, Pennsylvania
> > ...Wilson in v.luch eyes MAY YOUR TEETH MAY GRIT. Hut none of my
> money> Will you.....sides arc still alking indicates there MAY be
> scTine ope
> > left. When Girl Portia..
> >
> > Daily Register Saturday, December 23, 1950 Harrisburg, Illinois
> > ...her: "YOUR eyes MAY shine. YOUR TEETH MAY GRIT. But none of my
> > money Will you.....a Merry a New Year Holland's HOLIDAY MAY YOUR
> > Holiday Cheer go on and on REES..
> >
> >
> > Edwardsville Intelligencer Wednesday, July 08, 1964 Edwardsville,
> > Illinois
> > ...you DON'T want MY peaches, DON'T SHAKE MY TREE. When you saw a
> > red-haired girl.....Neutral IS A Nice GearBut DON'T You Have Any
> > GOLDWATER--ATRAGEDY..
> >
> >
> > Lancaster Eagle Gazette Thursday, July 18, 1974 Lancaster, Ohio
> > ...a brick. I'm so mean I MAKE MEDICINE SICK. The occasion for
> > Ali's.....now than ever before which could MAKE up for some
> parts .of
> > my game that..
> >
> >
> > Mountain Democrat Friday, February 17, 1989 Placerville, California
> > ...I wIsh YOU luck, I wIsh YOU JOY, "I wIsh YOU fIrst a BABY
> BOY. "AND
> > when hIs.....haIr begIns to curl, I wIsh YOU then a BABY gIrl. AND
> > when her..
> >
> >
> >
> > Post Standard Friday, August 23, 1991 Syracuse, New York
> > ...comment on that situation and I 'GOD DOESN'T LIKE UGLY. He'll
> > handle the.....coming. He is such a strong Peters DOESN'T have
> to be
> > con- vinced of Seals..
> >
> > Post Standard Sunday, March 19, 2000 Syracuse, New York
> > ...to the public. For more 435-2155. 'GOD DON'T LIKE UGLY' An
> > inspirational gospel.....musi- DON'T LIKE comes to the Landmark 362
> > S..
> >
>
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