GROW SOME 'TATERS'

[Fred Murray, words and music]

Down our little alley we've been very busy
Fourteen youngsters and myself and my old girl named Lizzie
We've all got picks and in the yard we throw ourselves about
And when the neighbours stare at us we look at them and shout

CHORUS
Let's all be busy
      All be busy
Don't look sad and don't look glum
      As if you're going to Kingdom come
Dress up like a farmer's boy in corduroys and gaiters
      Dig up all your old backyards and grow some blooming taters

We've got taters sprouting up and other things are coming
Round the dust-hole every day the bumblebees are humming
My old girl she has been and got a special strain of greens
They're growing round the window sill with turnip tops and beans

CHORUS

Taters they were getting scarce and folks I had to warn 'em
They'll be worth their weight in gold and then we'll start to pawn 'em
The lot I've got are fine and large, all growing through the ruts
And if I stick some hair on them they'll sell like coconuts

© Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd., London
No date is offered, except:
"Above written and sung during the first World War, 1914 - 1918."

Reprinted with permission (acknowledged in two places) on page 83,
The Anthology of the Potato
edited by Robert McKay
Dublin: Allen Figgis & Co., Ltd., for the Irish Potato Marketing Company, Ltd. 1961