REMINDER: Tomorrow is your last chance to win a free copy of A HATFUL OF DRAGONS. Tomorrow evening I will draw one name from the pool of those who have helped promote Vikram’s book and notify the folks who will mail out the book. Good luck!
Hi everyone,
One of my early memories is of my mother’s beautiful soprano voice. She hummed, whistled, and sang through her days as she went about her many activities as a fulltime mother and home maker. She sang in vocal duos, trios, quartets, glee clubs, and choirs. I learned to try my own voice and discovered the fun of singing too. On long trips down endless Arizona highways, Mom and I often sang together when we weren’t looking for animals in clouds. Dad drove while we entertained ourselves.
But now and then, always when least expected and always to my immense delight, Dad would burst out with his one and only musical accomplishment — the part chant/part song that follows. I know it’s a variation of the frog went a’courtin’ song, which has many versions, but I’ve never seen this one in print. Here it is, phonetically spelled and from memory stretched thinly over seven decades.
John Harrison’s song
Sayro jayro stripe-back pennywinkle
foddle-doodle yellow bug rinktum pollywog skymbo.
Mr. Frog went courting and he did ride,
walchum polly won’tcha kie me,
He asked Miss Toad to be his bride,
walchum polly won’tcha kie me,
Kimbo kyo flimbo flyo kimbo kyo flyo
Walchum polly pennywinkle doodle little booger,
Walchum polly won’tcha kie me.
There you have it. And here is one of the sites you can visit for other versions. https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/the-many-versions-of-frog-went-a-courtin/
