The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62965 Message #2789942
Posted By: Phil Edwards
16-Dec-09 - 06:38 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: Old sayings from childhood
Subject: RE: Folklore: Old sayings from childhood
"What's for tea?" "Cat's legs and apple pie."
- from my father (born in 1913), who heard it from his mother.
And if you said "don't care", my mother would come back with
"Don't Care was made to care,
Don't Care was hung.
Don't Care was put in the pot
And boiled till he was done."
(Even as quite a small child I thought 'Don't Care' was an unlikely name.)
My mother (born 1921) also had a handkerchief-figure rhyme which she'd got from her father, who was a devout member of the Plymouth Brethren. The hanky-man was supposed to be a monk, and the rhyme went:
"Dearly beloved brethren, is it not a sin
To eat new potatoes and throw away the skin?
The skin feeds the pigs, the pigs feed you.
Dearly beloved brethren, is it not true?"