My husband and I were watching the TV show called "Monk" the other day, and for some reason, the last line of the song, "And what became of the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk" came to mind. At the time I couldn't remember the rest of the song (or even the title), but I told my husband that the line was from a song that my mother used to sing to me when I was a young child (in the '50s in Minnesota). My husband (who grew up in California in the 50s, like the originator of this thread!), had NEVER heard the song before. He seemed to think I was just making it up on the spot!
So while it's a song with a LONG history, apparently not everyone of that generation has heard of it! The next day I remembered some of the rest of the words of the song, and then I finally Googled to find out the rest of the lyrics. It has been fun reading everybody's comments on this website!!