Beans, etc, PS: The Battle Hymn...

[Jonathan Lighter]

Another fave at the time was,

  On top of Old Smoky,
  All covered with blood,
  I found my poor teacher,
  With her face in the mud.

  I don't believe anyone got in trouble for singing these songs, but I couldn't be everywhere.  Personally I found them disturbing, especially when sung by little girls.  The fad didn't seem to last more than a couple of weeks, though.

  JL



Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: Beans, etc, PS: The Battle Hymn...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 08:50:15 -0700
From: Jonathan Lighter <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Beans, etc, PS: The Battle Hymn...

Ah, yes, the TEACHER: that forbidding (if not malovelent) figure looming in the psychological landscape of American children--fair game for those hostilities that attachments to actual parents would make difficult.

On top of old Smoky, all covered with sand,
I shot my old teacher with a green rubberband.
I shot her with pleasure, I shot her with pride.
I couldn't have missed her; she's forty-feet wide.

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

As I remember it:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school.
We have tortured every teacher; we have broken every rule.
We'll go down to the office and we'll hang the principal,
As we go marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Teacher hit me with a ruler!
I bopped her on the bean with a rotten tangerine,
As we go marching on.

The "tangerine" line was sometimes replaced with, "I met her at the door with a loaded .44." And sometimes both were sung in tandem, with the bean-bopping coming first.

"School days! school days! Dear old Golden Rule days!" --_Old song_

(Sniff.)

JL

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
Choose the right car based on your needs.  Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org