Growing up my grandpa would always sing the silliest songs to me and my little brother. Some were nursery ryhmes that were just changed, others were ones i had never heard of. One that my grandpa sang to me was. " Mary had a little lamb, her father shot it dead, by the light by light , by the light of the moon, NOw Mary carries her lamb to school bettween to chunks of bread , by the light, by the light of the moon. "Mary made a plan one day, to get back a her old dad, by the light, by the light , by the light of the moon, SHe grabbed some cans of paint and made his room all plad , by the light by the light of the moon. "mary's dad came home that day, His eyes were seeing red, by the light by the ligh, by the light of the moon. NOw mary walks to school today , with two peg legs instead, by the light , by the light of the moon" I'm afraid he got me started on it, and i added the last two stanzas, but theres a whole set of "by the light of the moon " songs. What songs or ryhmes or fables do you remember being told by your parents or grandparents?

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001

Answers

My grandmother used to say to me:

"There was a little girl who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her fore-head.

When she was good, she was very very good,

But when she was bad, she was horrid."

(She would say that to me as she was making a big curl of my hair in the middle of my fore-head.)

I taught my daughter the rhyme about Little Jack Horner this way:

"Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas Pie.

He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said:

Ah, yes! Messy things, aren't they!"

She was full grown before she knew any different.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (Dianne in Mass) (Trevilians@mediaone.net), October 20, 2001.

"There was a little girl, who had a little curl" was quoted often to me, strongly implying that I was that girl, and that I was often horrid. I actually had no curl.

When my brother, Clyde, was born, my parents lived in a rented farmhouse. Mom would sit on the barnyard fence (a stone one) and sing, "Rock-a-bye Clydey on the stone fence. When the wind blows the cradle will rock. When the fence breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come Clydey in the cow manure!"

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 20, 2001.

I used to love to make up songs with my children when they were little! My oldest son still remembers the lyrics we made up while sitting in the rocking chair (he was 4) looking out our brand new bay window in the kitchen: Just Mommy and me, and Samantha makes three..we'll be happy in our bay window. He used to parody songs all the time! One Christmas season in St. Louis, we were passing the Famous & Barr department store when he popped up with,"We three kings from Orient are, stealing gifts from Famous and Barr. Onward, onward into the getaway car.....weird kid, but we loved him anyway.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 20, 2001.

My grandpa always had songs or rhymes for our names and this tradition has been genetically passed down in our family. Why else would every relative upon meeting my daughter sing, "Rosie Posey pudding and pie..."? We also have a "Violet, Violet, the river Pilot...." song. My grandma was a Katie, and so is my daughter and there is the old family song "Katie Did."

My Grandpa died over 30 years ago but my Dad is the keeper of the songs. He needs to write them down because many of us are not good at memorization. At every family gathering around the campfire we all get to relearn the Gingerbread Cat, and my favorite, I cannot remember the name of it, it is about a kitten, a fairy and catterpillars and butterflies. the punchline goes, "am I a butter- kitten or just a catterfly?" Of course I do have cats named Butterkitten and Catterfly.

My Uncle Dale has a version of Mary had a Little Lamb with the same theme and rhymes as your Grandpa's. He made it up some 60 years ago after Grandpa butchered my Aunts' "pet" lamb. These white haired old ladies STILL yell at him when he sings it!

The first one I learned and the first one I taught to my kids: Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?

We have family gatherings with between 50 - 200 people attending. The songs and rhymes are kinda the passwords so we know you belong.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), October 20, 2001.

Another cute one my grandpa sang was " Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses, all the king's men, had scrambled eggs for breakfast again." "mary mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? with silver bells and cockel shells and (burp) one radish."

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001.

Are we related? :)

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), October 21, 2001.

My husband introduced this one to the family:

Jingle bells, Santa smells, Granny's up a tree. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a beat up Chevrolet!

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 21, 2001.

I don't think any less of him, don't worry. =) Little miss muffet sat on her tuffet eating her curds and wey(?) along came a spider and sat down beside her and said "hey tuts whats for supper?"

Heres a nice long one. " The bording house where i was staying, everything was green with mold. The ladies hair was in the butter, silver threads amoung the gold, the dog died, we had hotdog sandwhiches, the cat died we had catnip tea, the landlord died the other morning, i left it was to much for me."

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), October 21, 2001.

does ANYBODY know the ryhme that starts " a tisket a tasket " my wifes shop is called Tisket a tasket and its driving us nuts trying to find the rest of the ryhme ! would appriciate ti if anybodycould let me know !

-- ian campbell - harris (campbellharris4@aol.com), June 20, 2002.

A tisket, A tasket A green and yellow basket I wrote a letter to my mom (or "to my love") And on the way I dropped it I dropped it I dropped it And on the way I dropped it A little boy picked it up And put it in his pocket His pocket His pocket He put it in his pocket A little boy Picked it up And put it in his pocket

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), June 21, 2002.

Does anyone know the rest of the ryhme that starts "I'm hiding, I'm hiding and no one knows where....." I remember it from a set of Childcraft books over forty years ago. Another part of it goes "Have you looked in the ink well? And Mother says "Where?" In the ink well says Father, but I was not there." (I think the child was hiding under a table) The end goes something like "Are those Jimmy's toes, there's ten of them see. And they were so surprised to find out it was me."

-- Linda Williams (ljsoftcrab@oonl.com), August 21, 2002.