My mother was born in 1921 in Montevideo Uruguay to British parents. When she was born, her Dad was helping the Argentinians build their National Railway. She went off to boarding school in England as soon as practical and ended up marrying a dashing Lt. Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard (my Dad) when she was 23 and working as a nurse during WWII.
She had lot’s of rhymes and ditties and aphorisms she taught us four American brats as we grew up in the Oakland / San Francisco Bay Area.
Here’s one that she said was from Chicago’s South Side but after doing a little research I think she got it wrong and it is a Bronx dialect ditty. But what do I know I know?
Foity poiple boids sittin on the coib
Along comes Hoiman and his goil
And Hoiman’s goil was so petoibed
To see the foity poiple boids
Sittin on the coib
Another of unknown origin.
Spring has sprung, the grass has riz
I wonder where the daisies is?
Spring has sprung, the grass has riz,
I wonder where my sweetheart is?
And the aphorism,
In an English Summer sky there is always enough blue to fashion a Dutch sailor’s (boy’s) pants.
– Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D.
This article was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2020 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, England, English, Languages, Mama Lisa, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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