re left, left, left my wife etc.

[Wilson Gray]

Supposedly used at Fort Hood, Texas, in the 'Fifties:

Sergeant:
To your left, your right
Your left, your right
Your left, your right
Your left

Soldiers:
Our packs are heavy
Our belts are tight
Our balls are swinging from
Left to right

Sergeant
Left
Left, etc.

As for "hay foot, straw foot," when I was at the Army Language School
in 1960, the story was told WRT the training of peasants drafted into
the Red Army. In fact, we were even shown a documentary of Red Army
recruits actually undergoing such training. I'd heard the phrase some
years earlier, but I didn't have a context for it until I'd heard the
Red Army story.

BTW, wasn't there an old pop song entitled "Goofus" that had a
somewhat similar line or verse in it?

-Wilson

On 2/18/07, Rowyn McDonald <rowynm at stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Rowyn McDonald <rowynm at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: re left, left, left my wife etc.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is the 3-beat blank you're missing "gingerbread"?
>
> I know it as:
>
> "Left, left, left, right, left
> Left my wife and forty-eight children
> Alone in the kitchen with nothing but gingerbread
> left, left, right, left."
>
> -Rowyn McDonald
>
> sagehen wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: re left, left, left my wife etc.
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >  The version I remember, from the '40s went:
> > "Left, left, left my wife & forty-eight kids
> > To starve to death on nothing but _____ " (3 beats)
> > but I can't remember what _______ was !
> > AM
> >
> > ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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