It's funny how these threads and rememberances happen! When I started this thread, I did NOT remember my very first performance, which was a recitation! I was five (5) years old. I was dressed to the nines, and I was placed on a dining room chair and I stood at proper attention, my arms at my sides. The occasion was a large dinner party that my Aunt hosted for some Seattle sailors ... this was in 1942 during WW2. At the signal, I can still remember my fear as I spoke this piece:

    THE MOO COW MOO

My papa held me up to the moo cow moo,
So close I could almost touch,
And I fed him a couple of times or so,
And I wasn't a 'fraidy cat ... much.

But if my papa goes in the house,
And my mamma, she goes in too,
I keep still, like a little mouse,
For the moo cow moo might moo.

The moo cows tail is a piece of rope,
All raveled out where it grows,
And it's just like feeling a piece of soap,
All over the moo cow's nose.

And the moo cow moo has lots of fun,
Just switching his tail about,
But if he opens his mouth, why then I run,
For that's where the moo comes out.

The moo cow moo has deers on his head,
And his eyes stick out of their place,
And the nose of the moo cow is spread,
All over the moo cows face.

And his feet are nothing but fingernails,
And his mama don't keep them cut,
And he gives folks milk in water pails,
When he don't keep his handles shut.

But if you or I pull his handles, why
The moo cow moo says it hurts,
But the hired man sits down close by,
And squirts and squirts ... and squirts.

I plugged "moo cow moo" into google and got several hits. One of them says that this was written by "Evelyn George", I guessing around 1910.

Finally, I think I just realised why I've been a 'performer' since I was five! CHEERS, Bob