Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Camp Songs

I was reading In the Woods, and the main character talked about dreaming about kids voices chanting different rhymes, and one of them was:

Two, two, the lily-white boys, clothed all in green-ho. One is one, and all alone, and evermore shall be so.

And suddenly I was thinking of something I hadn't thought of in twenty years or more.

I'll sing you one ho.
Green grow the rushes, ho,
What is your one ho?
One is one, and all alone,
And evermore shall be so.


And two, two, the lily-white boys, and three, three, the rivals, and four for the Gospel makers, and five for the symbols at your door... And, uh, well, Wikipedia remembers better than I.

I never thought about the meaning much. I wonder what other bastardized religious mnemonics I sang when I was a Boy Scout? What camp songs do you remember? This goes back so far, there must be a million I'm forgetting. Ah, the group participation experience, in the dark, around or across a fire. Good times. Let's see...

Let me see your boogaloo. What's that you say?

Squirrel, squirrel, shake your bushy tail. (Squirrels were brown where I came from. I recall Aerie telling me that when she was singing camp songs, it was "Gray squirrel, gray squirrel..." Freaky ass squirrels in the northeast are gray! You believe that? The first one I saw when I went up there for college, I thought it was just really old...)

The other day, I met a bear, a great big bear, away out there.

Father Abraham had seven sons. Seven sons had Father Abraham.

In a cottage in a wood, little old man at the window stood, saw a rabbit running by, frightened as could be.

Mmm mmm went the little green frog one day, mmm mmm went the little green frog.

And the green grass grew all around, all around. The green grass grew all around.

It skiddly oaten dotin', bo doh skee deeten dahtin, wah dahtin chu.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Camp songs. Don't remember many, but then only went to camp twice all by the age of 11.

Btw, I was noticing some pretty awesome numbers on your sidebar tonight. Go, Rodius!

Lisa L said...

2 pound weight loss? Fucking awesome mate. Awesome. (Must apologize for my language...you can take the girl out of Australia, but you can't take the Australia out of the girl!)

I, Rodius said...

Thanks! I've been bouncing around between 253 and 249 for the past couple of weeks. Watching your weight daily is kind of like watching your stock prices daily. When you should be thinking in terms of long-term trends, paying attention to daily changes causes unnecessary stress!

@girlsworld: I've noticed your daily treadmill struggles. With the colder weather, and fewer work assignments, I've been on the treadmill a couple of times lately, too. Mixing up jogging, biking, and treadmilling has helped. The treadmill does get tedious. Good luck!

@Lisa L: bad language is always welcome here!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately the treadmill is my only friend. I haven't found anything that I can keep my cardio going with 3 kids in tow other than that. Usually I don't mind the treadmill. Clip on the Ipod and I'm off. I'm just in a rut, so I've been trying to push myself to do it anyway rather than not do anything at all. I'm thinking it's the medication I'm on. A second opinion is coming in a couple of weeks.

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