The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #312   Message #236902
Posted By: GUEST,Allan S.
01-Jun-00 - 12:41 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Roaches and Bedbugs?
Subject: RE: Roaches and Bedbugs?
There was a thread on this last year I learned it as follows about 1936 in grade school

I was standing on the corner not doing any harm
When along came a copper and he took me by the arm.
He took me round the corner and rang a little bell.
Along came the ding-dong a-driving like hell.

Seven o'clock in the morning, I looked upon the wall.
The roaches and the bedbugs were having a game of ball.
The score was seven to nothing and the roaches were ahead,
When the bedbugs hit a hone run that knocked me out of bed.

Eight o'clock in the morning, the jailer comes around
And brings you bread and butter that weighs half a pound.
The coffee's like tobacco juice. The bread is hard and stale;
And that's the way they treat the bums at the Whaley Avenue jail.

I learned this about 1936 in New Haven, CT which accounts for the line Whaley Avenue jail. This is where the town jail still is. There appeared to be several variations of this song all over the country. Where did your Dad learn it?