Do you have special fun rituals you participate in with your children, grandchildren, or any of the little ones in your life? My husband was a great one for shoulder rides and rib tickles. My mother loved to form a pea-shelling circle and relate old family stories. I had an uncle who carried around packs of gum for any nieces and nephews who happened to be around. Me? I am a nursery rhyme enthusiast, though the excitement seems to stop at the borders of my purportedly lilac colored aura. My son when he was little and now his own Snickerdoodles provide a lukewarm reception for any nursery rhyme recitation I might offer. Consequently, my breathy whispering in the Snickerdoodles’ ears of my favorite nursery rhyme, Baa Baa Black Sheep, has become a means of Grammy’s good-humored, tickling goodbye ritual. Hey, if they can’t appreciate this vintage nursery rhyme one way, let them enjoy it another.
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives in the lane.
1731, earliest surviving version
By Dorothy M. Wheeler [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Many classic nursery rhymes claim a dark or sinister origin and came about as populist code in response to hard times or unpopular political shenanigans. However, I derive simple pleasure from the image of a special black sheep providing primo dark wool for all and sundry. I see the little lamb prancing up the country lane with the rosy-cheeked little boy. The sun peeks through the hedgerows, the name of the village is something like Thistle-Upon-Tyne, and all is right with the world.
What about you? What’s your favorite vintage nursery rhyme?
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Romance
We don’t have something like this or hey are different. I like the rhyme and its history. It ,makes me angry when I see things we are used to and entered our lore to be banned for some idiotic pretense. It happens even here. With a fairy tale. Considered now violent and so on.
Thanks for sharing it, Flossie!
It’s irritating when people read things into a rhyme or fairy tale that had nothing to do with it and then we are looked upon askance for liking it since our childhood.
I guess I don’t really have a favorite nursery rhyme, but I do have a special affinity for Three Billy Goats Gruff and the troll who says “who’s that trip-trapping on my bridge.”
I must be completely un-PC, because when I read the Baa-Baa Black Sheep rhyme, I saw nothing in it but childhood pleasure and innocence. How horrible that people feel the necessity to pick these old offerings apart and turn them into something ugly. I prefer to look upon them with warmth and simple fun.
I perceive it the same way, Mae– a journey to childhood innocence. I well remember Three Billy Goats Gruff– reading that in school and then in various places later on. It made an impression on me too.
I still love reciting nursery rhymes. They offered wonderful games and hours of entertainment when I was a child. We played London Bridges falling down, Three Blind Mice, Farmer in the Dell, Jack and Jill. It’s a shame that the Uncle Remus stories were band as being racist. It’s too bad those who are the first to condemn don’t research the history of these marvelous stories.
Oh, I loved it when our teacher read Uncle Remus to us with Brer Rabbit! We loved playing London Bridge is Falling Down, Drop the Handkerchief, Red Rover, etc. What fun memories!
My grandmother use to sing me Clemintine I loved it we also had ASN album full of nursery rhymes we would listen to at bedtime. I too see the little lamb giving wool.
Cathy, we used to sing Clementine in school. Loved the songs we sang in music class back then.