Not much source information available on this. The sources listed in the Traditional Ballad Index are quite recent. Can anybody find any earlier sources. Here's the Ballad Index entry:Father's Whiskers
DESCRIPTION: "We have a dear old daddy For whom we daily pray, He's got a set of whiskers, They're always in the way." The whiskers are so extensive that they are put to a variety of absurd uses: Straining gas, feeding cattle, serving as camouflage in war
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: father family humorous nonballad hair
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 262-263, "My Pappy's Whiskers" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 241, "Father's Whiskers" (1 text)
DT, FATHWISK
Roud #13619
File: FSWB241AGo to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song ListGo to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright 2015 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
...and the lyrics from the Digital Tradition (suggested corrections in italics):
FATHER'S WHISKERS
We have a dear old daddy
For whom we daily pray,
He's got a set of whiskers,
They're always in the way.
CHORUS
Oh, they're always in the way,
The cows eat them for hay,
They hide the dirt on father's shirt,
They're always in the way.
Father had a strong back,
Now it's all caved in,
He stepped upon his whiskers
And walked up to his chin.
We have a dear old mother,
With him at night she sleeps,
She wakes up in the morning
Eating Shredded Wheat.
We have a dear old brother,
He has a Ford machine,
He uses father's whiskers
To strain the gasoline.
We have a dcar old sister,
It really is a laugh,
She sprinkle's father's whiskers
As bath salts in her bath.
Father has a daughter,
Her name is Ella Mae,
she climbs up father's whiskers
And braids them all the way.
Around the supper table
We make a merry group,
Until dear father's whiskers
Get tangled in the soup
Father fought in Flanders,
He wasn't killed, you see,
His whiskers looked like bushes
And fooled the enemy.
When father goes in swimming,
No bathing suit for him,
He ties his whiskers 'round his waist
And gaily plunges in.
@kids @camp @family
filename[ FATHWISK
RG