I lived in Wisconsin from the age of 9 to 21, but somehow I never learned this song. People would talk about it, but they would get no farther than "My Name Is Yon Yonson, I comes from Visconsin." And everybody would laugh, and that would be then end of it. It was assumed that everybody knew the song, so nobody sang it. They sang "In Heaven There Is No Beer" until I learned it very well, and I learned lots of polkas, but not "My Name Is Yon Yonson." I found the following short piece - it this the whole song?My name is Yon Yonson
In this thread, Art Thieme, for whom I usually have the greatest respect, says "Yon Yonson" is about South Dakota. Can this be so?
I live in Wisconsin
I work in a lumber mill there.
All the people I meet
when I walk down the street
say "Hello, what's your name?" and I say:
My name is Yon Yonson
I live in Wisconsin...
(repeat)
Please help me. This is something that has bugged me for years, since I feel my education in my Wisconsin heritage is incomplete. I do know, however, that the song was quoted by Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, and that Carl Sandburg recorded it.
It would be nice to have a tune to this one, you betcha.
-Joe Offer-
Here's the version from Vonnegut:My name is Yon Yonson
This ditty is cited at least four times in the book, most completely on pp. 3-4.
I work in Wisconsin
I work in a lumbermill there.
The people I meet when I walk down the street,
They say, "What's your name?"
And I say:
"My name is Yon Yonson
I work in Wisconsin..."
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:My Name is Yon Yonson
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin, I work in the lumber mills there, Ven I valk down the street, all the people I meet, say, 'Hello, vot's your name?' and I say...." and repeat until someone rebels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Sinclair Lewis, _Dodsworth_)
KEYWORDS: humorous cumulative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 71, ("My Name is Yon Yonson") (1 text)
Sinclair Lewis, _Dodsworth_, 1929
NOTES: The form quoted in the description does not appear to be original. Wyman's version is not in dialect (I've quoted Leisy's text, even though I've never heard a Norwegian who could pronounce "th" but could not pronounce "w"; it's either or neither). Also. Wyman's last line is simply "All the people I meet Ask how I came to be there." I suspect the latter form would not have been remembered had not someone "circularized" the poem. But since no author is known, there are variant texts, and Leisy has a tune, this *might* be a folk song. So here it is.
Credit to Jim Dixon for pointing out to me the 1929 version in Sinclair Lewis's Dodsworth. This is a version in true Scandihoovian dialect, and properly circular: "Ven I go down de street, All de people I meet, Dey saaaaaaay, 'Vot's your name?' And I sa-aaaaay: My name is Yon Yonson...." - RBW
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