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

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:23 AM -0700 6/8/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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

I obviously lived a more sheltered life:  no loaded .44s, no
school-burnings, not even any blood, just assault by decomposing
tangerines and, for Old Smoky, a pasta substitute.

LH

>
>
>
>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

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