The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #63874   Message #1042315
Posted By: Joe Offer
26-Oct-03 - 11:34 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: In Mobile / In Kansas
Subject: ADD: In Kansas
I suppose we ought to keep "Praties" in the other thread (click), but I think these two versions from Belden show the link from "Praties" to "Kansas" to "Mobile."
-Joe Offer-

IN KANSAS Potatoes they grow small in Kansas,
Potatoes they grow small in Kansas,
Potatoes they grow small and they dig them in the fall
And they eat them tops and all in Kansas.

The girls grow tall in Kansas,
The girls grow tall in Kansas,
The girls grow tall and they marry in the fall
And they part not at all in Kansas,
Don't you want to roam to Kansas?
Don't you want to roam to Kansas?
Don 't you want to roam
And get yourself a home
And be contented with the doom
In Kansas?

They chew tobacco thin in Kansas,
They chew tobacco thin in Kansas,
They chew tobacco thin
And spit it on their chins
And lick it in agin
In Kansas.

Potatoes they grow small in Kansas,
Potatoes they grow small in Kansas,
Potatoes they grow small,
And they dig 'em in the fall,
And eat 'em skin and all
In Kansas.


source: Belden: Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society