I remember a great little humorous song from the American Civil War called Goober Peas. Had it on an old Burl Ives record. It seems that the southern army was short of food, but they had plenty of peanuts to eat. The soldiers soon became heartily sick of peanuts, and somebody wrote this mocking song about the joys of eating them...as follows...

GOOBER PEAS

(E) C F C / C F G7 / C F C / C F C G7 C

Sitting by the road-side on a summer day,
Chatting with my mess-mates, to pass the time away,
Lying in the shadow, underneath the trees,
Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

C F G7 C / C F C G7 C

Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas.
Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

When a horse-man passes, the soldiers have a rule,
To cry out their loudest, - "Mister, here's your mule?"
But another custom, enchanting-er than these
Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas.

CHORUS

Just before the battle, the General hears a row;
He says "The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now".
He looks down the roadway and what d'you think he sees?
The Georgia Militia cracking goober peas.

CHORUS

I think my song has lasted just about enough.
The subject's interesting but the rhymes are mighty rough.
I wish the war was over so free from rags and fleas,
We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts, say good-bye to goober peas.

CHORUS

This version in Folk Songs for Fun, copyright 1957 by Oscar Brand

Back to me....I was in Hawaii once, staying at an ashram run by one Swami Dayananda. I didn't like him so much, but I liked the place. Anyway, they had a lot of fruit and vegetable gardens which I worked in. I harvested plenty of fresh peanuts, and discovered why they are called peanuts. They taste almost exactly like peas when they are raw. After you roast them, they change color and don't taste like peas anymore. The raw ones are good to eat, and much better for you than the cooked ones. They are very high in protein, and must have been of great benefit to the Confederate soldiers who were so sick of eating them.

Now, who's got some more good Civil War songs?