Hey ho, the Rattlin' Song

For those of you who read yesterday's post and wondered where it went, I pulled it back onto the draft table. I wanted to write something new, but it rambled without any sense of focus. It was neither a story nor a song, and really, I cheated toward the end by writing only the first three sentences of a story.

I write regular letters for an e-group for people who are interested in the family life of the House of Glee. The letters used to be newsier, but now they're more anecdotal. Last night, I sent out this note:

Lucia likes sequential songs. One of her favorites as of late is a shortened variation of "Hey, Ho, the Rattlin’ Bog." At her request, a dolly has taken the place of the egg. For example:

"Now in that nest there was a dolly, a rare dolly, a rattlin’ dolly,
The dolly in the nest, and the nest on the leaf..."


A few nights ago, Lucia was in bed singing a wildly altered version of the song:

"Now on that dolly there was a piano
a rare piano, a rattlin’ piano
The piano in the piano and the tree and the tree…

[pause]

Now on that piano there was a dolly,
a rare dolly, a rattlin’ dolly,
And the leaf and the leaf
And the apples fell down the piano."

After awhile, Lucia switched to the song "Aiken Drum," which she treated in a similar fashion:

"The dolly was made of piano, piano,
The dolly was made of piano, and his name was Aiken Drum."

These songs are quite fun to hear the first 10 or 20 times. I have a high tolerance for cumulative songs (with the exception of "There's a Hole in the Bucket"). However, on the rare occasions when I drive alone, I listen to the sweet country gospel acid house music of Alabama 3.