Gail wrote me:
Greetings Lisa,
I am wondering if you have ever heard of a Dutch children’s song that starts out: “In the Vintertime when the vind blows…” some of the other words were vindowpane and vestibule. It goes something like:
In the wintertime when the wind blows (and something) then frost forms on the windowpane… (something else) and then a phase containing – in the vestibule.
Thank you so much for your assistance. My grandmother used to sing it to me and I don’t remember the words. I having been trying to find out about this little ditty for around 30 years. With your help, I may finally get an answer.
Thank you so much!
Gail E. Mann
If anyone can help with this song, in Dutch and/or English, please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
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78 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with a Dutch Song that goes “”In the Vintertime when the vind blows…””?”
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October 23rd, 2017 at 6:14 am
Oh wow, I’m so glad I found this (10 years late! 😂) My Grandmother also sang this to me, as a child, and I have been trying so hard to remember it. I have one more verse for you, if you’d like! :
Ain’t is nice in the Summertime
When the littenbugs and the
Hemmin birds and the yulpin frogs wit
The googly eyes sing quartets in the
Grass together.
*and rather than quartets, I feel like the word sounded like “cuvoirtettes”, but I found nothing within searching for it. What a great thread, thanks again for posting!!
November 27th, 2017 at 1:18 am
My mother from Chicago sang these lyrics:
In the wintertime in the valley green,
When the wind blows on the windowpane,
You can watch the womenfolk from the waterworks
Riding velocipedes on the waterfall.
January 27th, 2018 at 2:08 pm
I grew up with a Swedish grandmother and Swedish neighbors next door who often transposed a v for a w. My neighbor had a great sense of humor, would say, “Yoost ven I learned to say ‘jelly,’ dey changed it to ‘yam.’” But it was in Boy Scouts where we sang the little alliteration ditty (to the tune of “Did you ever see a Lassie”) around the campfire:
In da valley in da vintertime,
Ven da vind blows on da vindowpane,
And da vimmin in da vaudville,
Rode velocipedes to da vestibule,
Of da Viking Hotel.
Ah-AH vimmin!
This would be sung again faster, and again still faster and faster until everyone was breaking up, and it was end with Ah-AH MEN!
Many of the Swedes who came to America in the late 19th Century and early 20th (my grandmother, 1905), had to learn most of their English on site by ear. The accents became regional until television. In sixty-five years, even the regional accents are blending off to a distinctly American neutral so that it takes a good ear to place them.
—RICK
February 6th, 2018 at 6:55 pm
Ach du lieber August, September,October
No wonder we’re sober
We aint got no beer.
Song learned in East London 1930 ‘s
Maybe in my book, Cockney Girl about growing up Jewish in East London before during and post WW2. If this one is not there there are probably others.
also a skipping song:
Down in the valley where the green grass grows, dear little (name of skipper) grows like a rose
She grows, she grows, she grows so sweetly
Down in the valley where the green grass grows. (skipper leaves the rope turned by two girls)
My teacher’s got a bunion a face like a pickled onion, a nose like a squashed tomato and legs like matchsticks. etc. have a dozen of them.
February 7th, 2018 at 1:51 pm
We’d love to learn more of your skipping songs Gilda! -Mama Lisa
June 13th, 2018 at 7:49 pm
I think this version came from my South Carolinean father:
In the vinter time, in the valley deep
Ven the vind blows on de veathervane
And the vimmen folk from the vaudeville
Ride velocipedes on de vindowsill.
And a different tune:
FFFCCAAAGF
GGGCAAAGF
GGGCAAAGF
GGGCAAAGF
FDF
June 18th, 2018 at 3:16 am
It is SO fascinating that people learn and remember such diverse varieties of nonsense songs & ditties. I sang what I remembered into Google & this blog/ site was the first (and only) response that contained what I was looking for.
Here is our family’s version:
In the vinter, ven ze vind blows
Out the vindow vhere ze street goes
All ze vomen of ze Vasserville
Ride velocipedes around ze vindmill
Ah vomen, amen!
October 8th, 2018 at 2:08 am
My Minnesota version goes like this:
It vas vinter in da vinterland and da vind blew tru da vinderpane and da ladies rode welocopes tru da westibule of da wiking hotel…
October 8th, 2018 at 8:01 pm
In der vinter ven der vind blows
Look der vindow out where der vater flows
See der vimmen in der vaudeville
Ride velocopedes around der vindmill.
From my father born near Holland Michigan in 1906.
June 19th, 2019 at 2:13 am
My dad, born in 1905 was of German/Dutch descent and his family were first in Pennsylvania and then moved to Nebraska. I remember him singing this silly version:
In the village in the vintertime
ven the vind blows upon the vindow pane
All the vimmin ride velocipedes
‘round the vater vell in their undervare.
July 10th, 2019 at 7:43 pm
This song was recorded and published by Oscar Brand. I used to own a copy of it many years ago. The album title was “Absolute Nonsense”, and “In the Vinter” is listed as number 14 out of 18 songs. Wikipedia’s “Oscar Brand discography” lists it as a “1948-Riverside” album.
July 10th, 2019 at 7:54 pm
Thanks for the info Evan! Before that it was published in 1927 in Carl Sandburg’s “American Songbag” – An Anthology of American Folksongs.
October 30th, 2019 at 2:07 am
My mother sang this to me and I love that others know it still and hope it is taught to many generations. It’s such a fun little song!
February 14th, 2020 at 6:54 pm
The local radio station in NW Minnesota used to play the song at the first snowfall of the season. It was done in a Norweigian accent, of couse. There were more verses, but the beginning went like this:
Ven it’s vinter in da valley green
An’ da vind iss blowing through da vindowpane,
An’ da vimmen of the vaudeville
are finagling in da vestibule
of da Viking Hotel.
February 16th, 2020 at 4:29 am
In da Vinter tijd,
Ven da voods are green,
Un da Vind blows on da vindow screen,
All da vimin in da Vaudeville,
Ride velocopedes on a da vindow sill.
Norwegian/Dutch hybrid sung to us kids by my 95 year old mother. What fun to learn that many know this wonderful song!! Had no idea!
May 29th, 2020 at 6:32 pm
Oh, it’s vunderful in the vintertime
ven the vind vistles on the vinowpane
and the vicked vomen of the vaudeville
ride velocipedes around the vestabule
ah vee-o-men, ah-men
July 7th, 2020 at 8:14 pm
My great-uncle Paul used to sing it like this:
In the valley in the vintertime
Ven the vind blows through the vindmills
And the vomen in the vaudeville
Ride velocipedes on the vindowsills
he might have sung more, but that’s all I remember!
October 17th, 2020 at 12:21 am
I just found this having Googled ‘song- in the vintertime in the valley green when the…’ My grandfather taught it to the family and we assumed it was one of his many Boy Scout campfire songs. This was in Reading PA and my family was Pennsylvaina Dutch. Not knowing the acutal words, we always sang it as…
In the vintertime in the valleygreen,
When the vint blows on the vindoscreen.
And the vimmen send den vaudeville,
write vilosophies on the vindowsill.
Ahhhh Vimmen, Ahhh Men
January 1st, 2021 at 3:55 pm
Of all these versions, Frank’s is closest to the one that I remember from my (Minnesota) mother in the 50’s. I think she said “windmill” instead of “windy hill” though. I had always assumed that it was a poorly remembered popular song from the 20’s or 30’s but, now that I see all these variants, it looks like it has achieved the status of “folk song”.
December 20th, 2021 at 2:52 am
I never dreamed this song would be found here!! My Dutch grandmother would sing it this way:
In the Vintertime
When the vind blows
Look the window out
And see the street goes
See the ladies in the vaudeville
Ride velocepedes around the indmill.
June 1st, 2022 at 12:49 am
I remember learning a song part of which goes, All the vomen in the vash house ride velosepedes around the vestibule. All vomen. All men.
June 23rd, 2022 at 12:51 pm
Thank you to the organizers of this website.
I heard a part of this song for the first time just a few minutes ago. My great aunt (aged 98) sang a few lines from it to me while recollecting that her uncle Herman sang it to her when she was a child (late 1920’s probably). They were from a Swiss German family living in Yorkville, New York (Upper East Side of Manhattan).
The part remembered went like this:
“The vimmen sin the vaudeville
Ride velosophies (Velocipedes) on the vindosills…”
(Similar to the variant cited by Charles Sharman in 2020 …a northeast variant, perhaps?).
Again, I extend thanks to all those in the thread.
August 21st, 2022 at 1:47 am
Oh my gosh!
I’m certain I learned this song at summer camp? Nate Girl Scouts.
But what I remember in my head is
It’s Vas Vinter in da vonderland and da vind blew on da vindopanes and da vain and vickeck vemen were volocitating on da vestibule
March 3rd, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Change the w’s to v’s and vice versa as you please. I recall “women in the waterworks” but that may be my faulty memory. I am sure that the wind “whistles” not blows.
In the Walley in the Vintertime.
When the vind vhistles in the vindowpanes
And the vomen in the Vaterworks
Ride wolocipedes through the westibules
Ahhhha vomen Ahhha Men
April 14th, 2023 at 3:28 am
Wow this is old post but I learned this as very long song, guess in camp. After the vimmen vrode velocipides stanza it was…
Copenhagen was taken, hurrah, hurrah
Copenhagen was taken, hurrah hurrah!
Und all the straight people shtood up in the steeple and shpit on the people below..
Ah Ah vimmen! Ah Ah men!
Off to Liberagus? September October
No vonder we are sober
Ve ain’t got no beer!
Mein little brother Heinrich, by the vindow stood…
Inside, out looking, he saw a tree there standing…
Und on the tree, a peach there hanging..
He leaned the vindow out, he fell the vindow out..
His head upon the rocks there lay….peachless!
He died, he did!
He died of a broken rib he did
(repeated twice)
Oh we’re the boys of the bowling green, bowling green, bowling green
Oh we’re the boys of the bowling green…
Boys! Don’t bowl on the green!
The green is for the king.
The king is for the queen
The king is for the prince!
What prince?
Footprints, nah!
Fingerprints, nah!
Here, prince!
And now, the moral of the story is….
To be able to distinguish the difference between asthma (deep breath in)
And passion (deep breath out)
So how’s your mother?
How’s your mother?
How’s your father?
How’s your sister Sue?
And while we’re talking, bout the family
How’s the old gazoo?
August 7th, 2023 at 5:42 pm
Yes old post. My Swedish grandfather sang it this way
In the vintertime in the valley green
When the vind blows on the vindowpane
All the Vomen folk from the vaudeville
Rode velocipedes to the vestibule
of the Viking hotel
ahhh vomen
ahhh men
February 8th, 2024 at 7:10 am
I’m so glad I found this song here! Lee’s the closest to the version I remember. We sang it as girls at Black River horse camp in Michigan. It was utterly goofy and I loved it. It’s fun to see all the different versions here and how songs evolve. I did just find this as well, published on another camp’s site. very close to the version that Lee and I both remember:
It Was Vinter in the Valley Green
It was vinter in the valley green,
and the vind blew on the vindowpane,
and the vomen of the vaudeville taught philosophy to the rest of us.
Copenhagen was taken. Hoo-rah. Hoo-rah.
Copenhagen was taken. Hoo-rah. Hoo-rah.
And all the stray people stood up on the shteeple and spit on the people below.
Ah-tooey; ah-vomen; ah-men.
Ah-til the August, September, October
no wonder we are sober, we ain’t got no beer.
My little brother on the window sat.
He saw a tree a-standing, and on that tree, a peach a-hanging.
He looked the window out.
He leaned the window out.
He fell the window out.
He died; he did; he died of a broken rib; he did; he died; he did.
We’re the boys of Bowling Green, Bowling Green, Bowling Green.
We’re the boys of Bowling Green.
Boys? Don’t bowl on the green.
The green is for the king.
The king is for the queen.
The queen is for the prince.
Prince? What prince?
Fingerprints? Nah.
Footprints? Nah.
Here, Prince!
And the moral of the story is to determine the difference to between asthma (inhale) and passion (exhale).
So, how’s your mother’s love life?
April 12th, 2024 at 1:51 pm
In the wintertime
In the valleyvill
Wen the vind
Vhistles through the windowsill
All the vimmen
Of the vaterkill
Ride velocipedes
In the vestibule