LOLLY-TOO-DUM

As I went out one morning to take the pleasant air,
Lolly-too-dum, too-dum, lolly-too-dum day.
As I went out one morning to take the pleasant air,
I overheard a mother a-scoldin' her daughter fair,
Lolly-too-dum, too-dum, lolly-too-dum day.

"You better go wash them dishes and hush that clattering tongue,
Lolly, etc.
I know you want to get married and that you are too young."
Lolly, etc.

"Oh, pity my condition as you would your own,
For seventeen long years I've been sleeping all alone."

"Yes, I'm seventeen and over, and that you will allow—
I must and I will get married for I'm in the notion now."

"Supposin' I was willin', where would you get your man?"
"Why, Lordy mercy, Mammy, I'd marry handsome Sam."

"Supposin' he should slight you like you done him before?"
Why, Lordy mercy, Mammy, I could marry forty more."

"There's peddlers and there's tinkers and boys from the plow.
Oh Lordy mercy, Mammy, I'm gettin' that feeling now!"

"Now my daughter's married and well fer to do,
Gather 'round young fellers, I'm on the market, too."

"Lordy mercy, Mammy, and who would marry you?
Ain't no man alive wants a wife as old as you."

There's doctors and there's lawyers and men of high degree,
And some of them will marry and one will marry me."

"Now we both are married and well fer to be.
Ha ha ha, you pretty young girls, that feeling's off of me."



I found these words in the "Folksinger's Wordbook", published in 1973. Compiled and edited by Irwin and Fred Silber. Page 344