family folk music

You know how families all have their own little language?

Many families (such as ours) seem to have their own repetoire of songs as well.

During evening devotions tonight, Mama started singing this little song about my youngest brother, and everyone else remembered it and sang along. I protested, because it sounded like worship of a rather unworthy subject... Mama then reminded me. "Dear, mothers always sing love songs to their babies."

Oh, yes. I'd forgotten.

Well, we started to recall the various songs associated with each of us.

Such as:

(to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic")

Elizabeth ate half her lunch and then she fell asleep,
Elizabeth ate half her lunch and then she fell asleep...
And she wouldn't wake up again.

She was only playing possum,
She was only playing possum...

Or this one, sung by my sister (Perv) at a very young age:

It was based on the hymn "Christ Shall Have Dominion," which goes like this:

Christ shall have dominion over land and sea,
Earth's remotest region shall His empire be....

The slightly altered version went like this:

weetie, weetie, weetie!
Empa, Empa, BEEEEE!

Or this:

Annie Laurie,
What's the Story?
You are such a morning glory...
(etc.)
sung to a tune I can't remember the name of.

repeated on another member of my family:
Calvin Owen,
Where ya' goin?
All your sweetness
Sure is showin...

Or, to the theme of "Juddaeus Maccabeus" (or whatever. You know, the one by Handel...):

Christa Victoria.
Christa Christa Christa Victoria...

And then, an American folk tune. Mama would substitute the word "rooster" with one of our names...

I love my rooster,
My rooster loves me.
I cherish my rooster,
'neath the cotton wood tree.

My little rooster goes cockle-doodle-dooo...
de-doodle-de-doodle-de-doodle-de-dooo...

My father has this uncanny ability of altering the words of songs to suit a particular situation. His most profound example wouldn't make a bit of sense on the blog, because I can neither remember the original words of the hymn, nor the name of the tune (let me assure you, it was incredible). But here's one he used to sing to us while giving us "airplane rides" early in the morning (after we'd climbed into bed with the parents)...

She floats through the air with the greatest of ease,
It's (name here), on the flying trapeze,
Her movements are graceful, her Pa-pa to please,
It's (name here) on the flying trapeze...

When Ben was a baby, Mama would sing to him from the other room,

Benjamin! Little buddy!

(remember the Veggie-Tales?)

And he would echo, right on key (so my mother alleges):

Ma-ma! Little buddy!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And in keeping with the topic as stated in my title...

Perv gave me Johnny Cash, "The Man Comes Around," for my birthday.

^_^