I had a Clancy Brothers recording of that nonsense song that ends " . . . 'twas like a pen-knife in my back, and when my back began to bleed, I was dead and dead indeed", which I always thought was really creepy.

My kindergarten teacher used to write children's songs on the side. This was always one of my favorites (bear with me, I thought it was terribly clever when I was seven).

THE TOWER GHOST

There's a house in old San Francisco,
That has a tower with blue-painted windows,
And at night as the fog rolls in off the bay,
And the dishes from supper are washed and away,
We sit in the parlor till twenty past ten . . .
And wait for the sounds of the night to begin,
For the sounds of the night to begin.

CHORUS:
The neighbors all tell the same story,
Of a man who was hanged in the tower,
Though no-one was there at the scene of his death,
They do know the time that he breathed his last breath,
And I don't need to tell you, for I'm certain you've guessed!
Twenty past ten was the hour,
That he hanged himself in the tower.

First comes a thud . . . and the comes a bump,
And then, sounds of footsteps that scramble and jump,
We hear floorboards creaking and right over head,
Comes a scratching of fingers from under the bed,
So we rush to the stairway and turn on the light . . .
And the noises all stop for the rest of the night,
They're gone for the rest of the night.

[Chorus]

On Sunday and Monday and Tuesday he came,
On Wednesday and Thursday, it all was the same,
The fingernails scratching, the thuds and the bumps,
The floorboards a-creaking, the scrambles and jumps,
Till I finally decided to take it no more . . .
I did something I'd not done before,
When I could finally stand it no more.

[Chorus]

On Friday I waited for the ghost to come in,
And when he arrived at twenty past ten,
I rushed to the window and opened it wide,
And, sticking my head through, I looked right outside,
And, suddenly, came face-to-face with the ghost!
I don't know who was frightened the most,
Was it me or was it the ghost?

[Chorus]

There's a house in old San Francisco,
That has a tower with blue-painted windows,
And each night on the roof-top, by the light of the moon,
Comes a ghostly . . . ghastly . . .
Raccoon!

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HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone 23-Feb-01.