Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores

Subject: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Fiolar
Date: 13 May 00 - 04:56 AM

Has anyone out there got the words of that hoary old favourite "The Quartermaster's Stores." The Qaurtermaster Corps is listed but is not quite the same. Some of the words I remember go something like this: "There were eggs, eggs that walked about on legs in the stores; In the Quartermaster's Stores. There were rats, rats big as bloody cats in the stores etc." Thanks in advance. Mike.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 13 May 00 - 05:08 AM

Gravy enough to sink the navy
beans as big as submarines
chips as big as battleships
Patrish
I will keep thinking ........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: MudGuard
Date: 13 May 00 - 06:02 AM

That is what I have on a recording by the Irish Weavers.
Some parts (marked in red) I could not understand.
MudGuard

Well there was cheese, cheese,
Oh (ofting ???) in the breeze
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There was ham, ham,
Mixed up in the jam
In the quartermaster's store

Well there was bread, bread
Just (a clumps of lead ???)
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There were buns, buns
Full of (hardeguns ???)
In the quartermaster's store

Well there were mice, mice
Eating up the rice
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There were rats, rats
Big as bloody cats
In the quartermaster's store

Well there was meat, meat,
Meat you couldn't eat
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There were eggs, eggs
Nearly growing legs
In the quartermaster's store

Well there was beer, beer
Beer you can't (ganeer ???)
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There was rum, rum
For the (general's tum ???)
In the quartermaster's store

Well there was cake, cake,
Cake you couldn't break
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There were flies, flies,
Feeding on the pies
In the quartermaster's store

Well there was fish, fish
Stinking in the dish
In the store, in the store
In the store, in the store
There were chickens, chickens
Since the times a-digging
In the quartermaster's store

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Pixie
Date: 13 May 00 - 08:20 AM

There were ants, ants, Crawling up my pants....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Uncle Tom Soberly
Date: 13 May 00 - 09:20 AM

But I remember from my school days something like a chrous going:-

My eyes are dim I cannot see I have not brought my specs with me I have not brought my specs with me

A cracking song!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Fiolar
Date: 13 May 00 - 02:16 PM

Thanks to all who replied. Mike

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 May 00 - 07:25 PM

Hi - take a look at a related song, Quartermaster Corps. As my kids would say, it's the same song, only different.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 13 May 00 - 11:03 PM

Hi MudGuard

cheese, wafting in the breeze (strong smelling)
Bread, just like lumps of lead
Beer you can't get near
Rum for the General's tum (=stomach)

We also used to make up verses based on people's names. eg..

There was Joe, Joe,
Getting quite a glow

There was MudGuard, MudGuard
Lookin' very RugGuard

etc.. etc.. ad nauseum.

Yep, Unca' Tom, we sang the same refrain - or ended it with "I left my specs in the WC".

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Chicky
Date: 13 May 00 - 11:20 PM

I've never heard it sung the same way twice! Whenever I've encountered it's been ad-lib-the-verses singalong around the campfire (or around the bar).

cheers - Chicky

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: DADGBE
Date: 13 May 00 - 11:39 PM

The earliest recorded version I've heard is by Pete Seeger and friends. It was probably recorded prior to W.W.II and was released on 78 rpm records (remember them?) by Stinson as "Songs of The Lincoln Brigade." Those lyrics are:

There is cheese cheese that brings you to your knees, in the store, in the store,
There is cheese cheese that brings you to your knees, in the quartermaster's store.

There is tea tea but not for you and me...

There are rats rats in bowler hats and spats...

There are beans beans that make fill your jeans...

There's a chief chief who never brings us beef...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: MudGuard
Date: 14 May 00 - 07:43 AM

Any idea on the buns? I listened to the song again, and it could be something like harleguns/horneguns as well as the hardeguns I wrote down.
MudGuard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 14 May 00 - 08:13 AM

G'day MudGuard,

For the life of me, I can't remember what we sang for "buns" apart from they were "hard as ????" - maybe "guns"... it was longer tho'...

Hold on.....

"hard as bleedin' stones" (pronounced "stuns") think that was it - it would work, anyway.

If all else fails, make it up as yer go along in the true QM store tradition.

BTW - I did an AltaVista search on "in the quartermasters store" earlier today, and only got 3 hits, none relating to the song - "quartermasters store" returned 26. I was panicing that the armies world-wide were running out of supplies. However, "quartermaster store" gave me 2,000 odd hits. Funny - I've always known the song (and the store) as Quartermaster's..

Cheers - Sgt Sam Reg# 678894 - reporting for words at the QM Store

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Jacob B
Date: 15 May 00 - 10:47 AM

This is great - I never realized before that there are two distinctly different songs, with two distinctly different ideas. The Quartermaster's Stores is about how all the food supplies are rotten, while The Quartermaster Corps is based on the idea that the Quartermasters get good stuff into the stores, but keep all the good stuff for themselves.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 15 May 00 - 10:59 AM

IN Glasgow, as kids, we sang the "Co-operative Store" pronounced "Co- per- aytive" ( don't ask me why)

The Co-op movement started in the Victorian era to provide local value stores and dividends to working people...

anyway

Does everyone sing the "My eyes are dim, I cannot see..." bit?

A fun song... may sing at the next session...

Byeee

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Penny S (elsewhere)
Date: 15 May 00 - 01:26 PM

There was sherry, making the staff feel merry
There was whisky, making the staff feel frisky

school version

Penny

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: JudeL
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 11:17 AM

There were rats, rats, as big as bloomin' cats

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 02:08 PM

My first encounter with this song was in the scouts
each verse referred to a person and something about them (or their car etc) was generally a bit of light hearted fun.
It was only later I realised it's vintage.
I guess this was the tradition with this song - to sing about local personalities or conditions.
from the "Songs R Us" stable.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 03:37 PM

I think every family had their own version of this. We always sang the chorus a couple of other 'catters have metioned
My eyes are dim, I cannot see
I have not brought my specs with me
I have not brought my specs with me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: toadfrog
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 04:09 PM

The song may be found on DT as QUARTERMASTER CORPSOut here, we sing

O it's whiskey whiskey whiskey,
That makes you feel so frisky,
On the farm, on the farm.
O it's whiskey whiskey whiskey,
That makes you feel so frisky,
On the Leland Stanford Junior Farm.

O it's beer, beer,
that makes you feel so queer.

O It's wine, wine, wine,
That makes you feel so fine.

O it's cold roast duck, [forgot the rest].

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: artbrooks
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 04:13 PM

If I remember correctly, this was on an Oscar Brand album, which might have been called "Bawdy Barracks Ballads". This version focused on various potables, and the verses listed the type of booze and effect:

"Oh, it's rye, rye, rye that makes you want to cry, In the Corps, in the Corps, in the Quartermaster Corps."

Other sets were gin/want to sin, brandy/feel so handy, and scotch/gets you in the crotch. I'm not sure if my daughter invented "coke/makes you want to choke" or if we picked it up someplace.

Subject: Lyr Add: POWER IN THE BLOOD
From: toadfrog
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 04:54 PM

The original song is:

POWER IN THE BLOOD

(Lewis E. Jones)

Would you be fee from the burden of sin?
There is Power in the blood, power in the blood!
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There is Power in the blood, power in the blood!

There is power, power,
Wonder working power,
In the blood,
Of the Lamb!
There is power, power,
Wonder working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
Would you do service to Jesus, your King?

Would you o'er evil a victory win?
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide.

This appears to be a hymn, but I can't find it on Cyber-Hymnal, or with the Pentecostals. Maybe a bit off the beaten track. Or maybe it was once more common than today. For the Joe Hill version, klik here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 02:04 AM

Buns buns, used as ammo for the guns - was the version my dad came up with, from his army days.... one of only 3 songs he ever taught me.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: JudeL
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 03:01 AM

alternative chorus we used to sing as kids:
my eyes are dim I cannot see;
I left them in the lavatry;
I left them in the lavatry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 01:49 PM

toadfrog,

Re: "Power in the blood" Something makes me think that this could be a Salvation Army song (I don't know why, I just "hear" it, in my head, played by a "Sally Ann" band.

Walrus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 04:48 AM

there are rats, rats, big as bloomin cats

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Flash Company
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:52 AM

There were buns, buns
For firing at the huns.

My dad was a Quartermaster Sergeant in the Royal Norfolks, he and his crew were known as 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:59 AM

I an ideal world, the words chosen should have some relevance to a quartermaster's stores, even if some semantic confusion is tolerable. Thus "frogs" in the first example below could refer to bayonet frogs, the canvas strap with which a scabbard is hung from the belt.

"Frogs, frogs, wearing swimming togs."


Another verse popular in my time was:

"Horses, horses, wearing women's corsets"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 06:42 AM

THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD is at the Cyber Hymnal.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 12:10 PM

I remember this from Cub camp & Scout camp.
As BillyTheBus says above, many verses were based on the names of the people at the campfire. The obvious example from many Cub camps was:

There was Akela, Akela,
Kissing a yankee sailor
In the stores....

This verse probably dates from WWII, when, not only were US forces over here, but with so many men being on active service, it became (and remains) common for women to take over the leadership of Cub packs

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Megan L
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 02:36 PM

cant do links to threads yet but a scottish version was discussed at "Lyr Req: The world must be coming to an end" quite an old thread

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 02:47 PM

On the Prairie Home Companion many years ago Jean Redpathy led the singing of another revival hymn called, I think, "In My Father's House." Its tune and structure was identical to that of "The Quartermasters' Corps/Store."

Does anyone have the lyrics or further info?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Teresa
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 10:21 PM

I first heard this song on Songs of the Lincoln & Int'l. Brigade/Southern Mtn. Hoedown (note track 11) with Woody Guthrie, Pete seeger, et al. I'm delighted to find out it still has a living presence. I always
thought it lent itself to improvisation. :) bTW, it's really International Brigade/Lincoln Battalion.

When I was a kid in the '70s, we sang "There is Power in the blood" in my Southern Baptist church.

I have to say I'm glad Joe Hill came up with some different lyrics for some of these hymns. ;)

Teresa

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 11:57 PM

I see that several people mentioned the "My eyes are dim..." refrain.
On the bus that took us to camp on summer days 40 or 45 years ago, we used to sing the
refrain in two parts:

A: My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me
B: My eyes............. are dim.......   I can..................... not see-ee-eeeee

A: I have - hey! - not - ho! - brought my specs with me.
B: I have............. not........... brought my specs with me.

About half of us would sing the A line, half the B. The dots in the B line
mean that you hold the note.

The word "Quartermaster" was not in our vocabulary, so we sang some nonsense
word like "Cornermaster" instead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Teresa
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 12:39 AM

I can't help wondering where the "I can't see" refrain came from??

Teresa

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,George
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 10:31 PM

I used to sing this every Friday at the Dakota Inn in Detroit.
My favorite part was "There was cold roast duck, that made you want a sandwich"

Subject: ADD Version: Quartermaster Stores
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 02:18 AM

Here's a substantial list - from Roy Palmer's What a Lovely War: British Soldier Songs from the Boer War to the Present Day (1990)(no tunes in this book)

The Quartermaster Stores

There was ham, ham, mixed up with the jam,
in the stores, in the stores.
There was ham, ham, mixed up with the jam,
In the quartermaster stores.
(Chorus)
My eyes are dim, I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I have not brought my specs with me.

Eggs ... running round on legs.
Cheese . . . green as garden peas.
Bread . . . heavy as lumps of lead.
Meat . . . soled your boots a treat.
Beer . . . makes you feel so queer.
Port... turns a prude into a sport.
Whisky. .. makes you feel so frisky.
Gin . . . that brings a girl to sin.
Brandy . . . makes you feel so randy.
Rats . . . big as bloody cats.
Bugs . .. big as deep-sea tugs.
Mice . . . trying to catch the lice.
Fleas . . . all with housemaid's knees.
Slugs . .. drinking from army mugs.
Phil .. . fiddling the till.
Bob .. . playing with his knob.
Frank ... having a Midland Bank.
Hall ... he's only got one ball.
Brown .. . with his knackers hanging down.

(Spoken) My name's Hunt, and I'm going home.

---

I don't think I hear a relationship between this and the tunes I know for "Power in the Blood" and "In My Father's House." There's a tune in the Digital Tradition (click), but there may be other tunes for this song.
-Joe Offer-

---

The Traditional Ballad Index lists versions of this song only in the Digital Tradition and in the Silbers' Folksinger's Word Book. Here's the Ballad Index entry:

Quartermaster Corps, The (The Quartermaster Store)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's beer , beer, beer that makes you feel so queer, In the corps, in the corps." "My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me." Similarly, "...cheese... brings you to your knees," and so forth with other army items
AUTHOR: unknown

EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: army soldier food disease nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 272, "The Quartermaster Store" (1 text)

DT, QMCORP*
Roud #10508
File: FSWB272A

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

Songs from the Front and Rear has a tune that's much closer to the chorus of "Power in the Blood."

Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: NH Dave
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 02:26 AM

I did a Google search of Scouting Songs and got this version.

   Dave

The Quartermaster's Song



There are snakes, snakes, snakes
Big as garden rakes,
At the store! At the store!
There are snakes, snakes, snakes,
Big as garden rakes, at the Quartermaster's store.

Chorus
My eyes are dim I can-not see.
I have not got my specs with me.
I have HEY! Not HO! got my specs with me.

There are mice, mice, mice
Running though the rice,
At the store! At the store!
There are mice, mice, mice,
Running through the rice, at the Quartermaster's store.

Chorus

Continue with each of the following:
3. lice - living on the mice.
4. rats - big as alley cats.
5. roaches - big as football coaches
6. watches - big as sasquaches
7. snakes - big as garden rakes
8. bears - but no one really cares
9. beavers - with little meat cleavers
10. foxes - stuffed in little boxes

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Teresa
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 02:59 AM

Joe, the tune you linked to is the one I always sang for "Power in the Blood". actually, it's the tune used for the verses of Quartermaster's Stores. The refrain I have never heard before, neither the tune nor the lyrics.

Teresa

Subject: ADD Version: Quarter Master's Stores
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 03:03 AM

Here's a version from a Canadian book, Songs from the Front and Rear: Canadian Servicemen's Songs from the Second World War, by Anthony Hopkins 1979). Note the alternate chorus, and this quote from Hopkins:

The alternate chorus is the closest I was able to come to a rumoured "sophisticated" version of "The Quarter Master's Stores." The always present rumour or belief among troops, particularly among recruits in large camps, is that "they" are putting saltpetre or some other chemical such as nitrate in the food secretly in order to diminish a man's sexual drive.

...the same rumor was endemic in the Catholic seminary I attended.
-Joe Offer-

---

The Quarter Master's Stores

There were rats, rats, big as alley cats,
In the stores, in the stores,
There were rats, rats, big as alley cats,
In the Quarter Master's stores.
CHORUS
My eyes are dim, I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I have not brought my specs with me.

ALTERNATE CHORUS
My cock is limp, I cannot fuck
The nitrate it has changed my luck.
The nitrate it has changed my luck.

There was beer, beer, to bring us all good cheer,
In the stores, in the stores,
There was beer, beer, to bring us all good cheer,
In the Quarter Master's stores.
CHORUS

There was cheese, cheese, rotting, stinking cheese,
In the stores, in the stores.
There was cheese, cheese, rotten stinking cheese,
In the Quarter Master's stores.
CHORUS

There was bread, bread, heavy as lumps of lead,
There was whiskey, whiskey, the stuff that makes you frisky,
There were socks, socks, filthy, smelly socks,
There were tents, tents, full of holes and rents,
There was rice, rice, full of bugs and lice,
There were flies, flies, eating all the pies,

---

Teresa, I'd agree that Songs from the Front and Rear has a tune that's much closer to the chorus of "Power in the Blood."

Click to play

I guess it is the "Power in the Blood" tune that I know. I don't know where the Digital Tradition tune comes from.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: sian, west wales
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 06:07 AM

Joe

Earliest date 1973????? Well, we were singing it at summer camp (the Power in the Blood version - although I never clicked to the connection before now!) in the late '60s and it was a golden oldie of the camp even then. I'm pretty sure my mum knew it, and if she learned it at camp it would have been pre WW II. Alternatively, she would have learned it from her brothers who were in the armed forces during the war.

Actually, I'll have to ask her. It's the type of song that Grampa would have known, which would put it WW I.

Anyone have any other chronology on this?

siân

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From:
Date: 16 May 05 - 06:58 AM

Another line that we used to sing at the Scouts in Stafford, English Midlands in the early 50's...

There was butter, butter - the scrapings of the gutter...
In the stores ...in the stores

Stuart Grant - Malawi - Central Africa

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Michy0137
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 02:22 PM

Continue with each of the following for quartermaster store:
3. lice - living on the mice.
4. rats - big as alley cats.
5. roaches - big as football coaches
6. watches - big as sasquaches
7. snakes - big as garden rakes
8. bears - but no one really cares
9. beavers - with little meat cleavers
10. foxes - stuffed in little boxes
11. Apes - eating chocolate cakes
12. celery – enough to fill a gallery
13. Eggs-that walked about on legs
14. Ham-Mixed up in the jam
15. Meat- Meat you couldn't eat
16. Bread- as hard as clumps of lead
17. Eggs-Nearly growing legs
18. Cake-Cake you couldn't break
19. Flies-Feeding on the pies
20. Ants-Crawling up my pants
21. Cheese- rotting, stinking cheese

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 03:47 PM

Being in the army, I can state categorically that both songs are true!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: greg stephens
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 05:45 PM

Well, I am working on a community arts project at the Hollybush Community Centre, Stoke-on-trent, and today we were singing this very song with the kids making their own verses. We are working towards a street party to celebrate 60 years since the end of WWII, and the preparation involves teaching the little ones the songs of the old timers. So the Quartermaster's Stores lives on.
   The predictability of rhymes makes the kids efforts much the same as those of 60 years ago.
Peas peas
Smudging on your knees

Beans beans
Dropping on your jeans

Chips chips
Sticking to your lips.

Mash mash
Giving you a rash

(continuity of culture!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 12:23 AM

sian, west wales, I am well along in years, but my memory is pretty good for some things, not completely Alzhammered! I would guess WW1 as well. As kids I am sure that we sang verses in the 1930s.
The hymn itself was often heard in the Depression days of the 30s. There was a soup kitchen variant which I vaguely remember. Our parents would not let us go to the parts of town where the Okies could be found on the move, detoured around the town center by police. We were warned away with stories about these people, but that only encouraged some of the bravest, so we saw a little of them.

There were worms, worms, worms in the bread,
In the bread, in the bread,
There were worms, worms, worms in the bread
Where they fed us (on the street ?).
I can't remember any more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,CB
Date: 27 Apr 06 - 02:11 PM

There were rats, rats,
As big as pussy cats,
In the store, in the store,
There were rats, rats,
As big as pussy cats,
in the Quartermaster's Store.

My eyes are dim,
I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I have not brought my specs with me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Lucky
Date: 07 Aug 06 - 06:34 PM

my eyes are dim i cannot see i've been in the pub since half past 3
Ive been in the pub since half past 3

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: GUEST,Ellie aged 10
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:38 PM

We are learning about The Second World War at school and we learnt this song:

There were rats rats,
Big as pussy cats,
In the store,
In the store,
There were rats rats,
Big as pussy cats,
In the store,
In the Quarter Master's store.

My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There were eggs eggs,
That taste like plastic pegs,
In the store,
In the store,
There were eggs eggs,
That taste like plastic pegs,
In the store,
In the Quarter Master's store.


My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There was fish fish,
lying in a dish,
in the store,
In the store.
There was fish fish,
lying in a dish,
in the store,
In the Quarter Master's store.

My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There was tea tea,
but not for you and me,
in the store,
in the store.
There was tea tea,
but not for you and me,
in the store,
in the Quarter Master's store.


My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

There was flour flour,
but only for an hour,
in the store,
in the store.
There was flour flour,
but only for an hour,
in the store,
in the Quarter Master's store.

My eyes are dim I can not see,
I have not bought my specs with me,
I have not bought my specs with me.

From Ellie aged 10. From England.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 08:57 PM

The version that goes thru the various drinks (Oh, it's tea, tea, tea, That makes you want to pee, etc.) was sung in my highschool (early 1950s) & college. George Orwell remembered "rats as big as cats" from the Spanish Civil War; I dare say it goes back to W.W. I or earlier.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 09:09 PM

Beans.... to make you FILL your jeans.
Gravy.... REJECTED by the Navy.

and many of the above.