The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3102   Message #1310878
Posted By: Tansy
29-Oct-04 - 04:22 PM
Thread Name: Women's Work Songs
Subject: RE: Women's Work Songs
Hmmm. When I was a girl and all us girls were doing massive amounts of dishes at Grandmas house, we sang a song that had dozens of verses that started off with "I wish I were a single girl again" but wasn't the common one you hear..it had a tune not unlike "Old Dan Tucker"! If we really got going, we could do it as a round with the various tasks falling into place after eachother with the different groups starting a few beats after the other one. I was very small then and have never heard it quite that way anywhere else. This would have been in the early 70's in Far upstate NY in The Adirondacks. The women who taught us the song are now in their 80's. I'll have to ask my Aunt and Grandmother. The song has verses about sewing, washing, cooking, planting, cleaning, birthing and dying and so on.