Looks like this song could use some research. Here are the lyrics from the Digital Tradition:IN OLD POD-AUGER TIMES (DT Lyrics)
I'll sing to you of the good old time
When people were honest and true,
Before their brains were rattled and crazed
By everything strange and new,
When every man was a workingman
And earned his livelihood,
And the women were smart and industrious
And lived for their families' good,
In the days of Andrew Jackson
And of old grand-daddy Grimes,
When a man wasn't judged by the clothes he wore
In old pod-auger times.
Young girls didn't hug nor kiss their fellows
Whenever they came to court,
Nor paddle around on roller skates,
Nor pound a pianoforte.
They kept their men at a good arm's length
And made them know their place,
And they played upon washboards and "kittles" and brooms
With amazing skill and grace.
They didn't lay a-bed 'til eleven A.M. -
Got up in the morning betimes,
And they didn't elope with the old man's coachman
In old pod-auger times.
Young fellows, they loaf about the street
And struggle with bad cigars,
They stay out late when they should be at home
With their daddies and their mas.
They wear tight trousers, likewise tight boots,
And guzzle Lager beer,
And when their daddies foot up the bills
They find them pesky dear.
When my old men were farmer's boys
We'd neither dollars nor dimes,
We worked from daybreak till candlelight
In old pod-auger times.
Oh, the young men didn't drive fast horses
Nor gamble with cards and dice,
They didn't run church lotteries,
For it wan't considered nice.
But now they gamble and drink mean rum
And lead hypocritical lives,
And wives run away with each other's husbands
And husbands with other men's wives.
Folks didn't have delirium tremens
Nor perpetrate horrible crimes,
For the cider was good and the rum was pure
In old pod-auger times.
From Vermont Folk-songs and Ballads, Flanders
Collected from Mr. Brown, West Wardsboro, VT 1930
@nostalgia
filename[ PODAUGER
TUNE FILE: PODAUGER
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:
In Old Pod-Auger Times
DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing to you of the good old times When people were honest and true, Before their brains were rattled and crazed By everything strange and new." The singer grumbles about modern ways, and longs for "old pod-auger times"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829-1837 - Presidency of Andrew Jackson
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Brown, pp. 69-71, "In Old Pod-Auger Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 251-253, "In Old Pod-Auger Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PODAUGER*
ST FlBr069 (Partial)
Roud #3739
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
NOTES [164 words]: We really need a keyword "Whining-about-the-end-of-the-good-old-days." See the cross-references for similar songs.
The song lists the time of Andrew Jackson as the ideal, but I can't see anything in it that's specific to that era.
Linscott states that this comes from Comical Brown's Songs, after "Comical Brown," whom she describes as a nineteenth century solo performer. She gives no other details, however.
According to Young,p. 134, "pod auger days" or "pot auger days" refer to "a long time ago. From the era when fireplaces were used for cooking. A pot auger was an adjustable pot hanger which could raise and lower the pot over the fire to control the cooking temperature." StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 384, cite various American usages, the earliest in 1833 (i.e. just about the time Andrew Jackson was re-elected) and the last in Maine in 1887, but cite eight Newfoundland uses; it would appear that the term is still in use there, but probably not in the United States. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 4.3
- StoryKirwinWiddowson: G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Pres, 1990
- Young: Ron Young, Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador, Downhome Publishing Inc
File: FlBr069Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song ListGo to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright 2019 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
I found the same lyrics as the DT in 101 Plus 5 Folk Songs for Camp, by Mike Cohen (1966, Oak Publications), pp. 34-35.
Notes from the Cohen book:A Pod Auger was a large twist drill which was used to hollow out the inside of logs to make water pipes out of them. This song tells about the way the young folks were acting foolish and getting out of hand. It was written in the late 1800’s. So take heart kids, folk songs may prove that the complaints you hear from adults today are the same complaints which were heard from adults seventy years ago. The problem just might be that adults like to complain.
Helen Flanders writes in A GARLAND OF GREEN MOUNTAIN SONG:
“Recorded by Mr. Brown, August 27, 1930, in West Wardsboro, Vermont, from the singing of Mr. Almon Robinson, a well known fiddler. This old woods song is known also in Maine. Mr. Robinson learned the song from an old Brattleboro man who sing it in a local concert. He recently dug up some old wooden piping made with a pod-auger that may still be seen in the village.
Mr. H. G. Tupper (deceased) a native of Bakersfield wrote: “You know they used to refer to a lawyer as a ‘pod-auger lawyer,’ meaning a lawyer who was behind the times and old-fashioned. Mr. Darling sent me a copy of this song which he cut out of the Boston Sunday Globe, and said that he heard Hank White sing the song onetime in Chelsea. It may interest you to know that Rev. R. A. Beardslee of Springfield has one of the old-fashioned pod-augers.”