Lyr Req: Into the Air, Junior Birdmen

Subject: Junior birdman
From: GUEST,Allan S.
Date: 29 Mar 00 - 09:25 PM

Does anyone remember a childrens, or camp song that started "Take to the air Junior Birdman, Take to the air upside down" Other parts remembered "With our badges made of tin" "With our noses to the ground" Also tearing of the top of a ceral box With "One thin dime" It was done with hands held around the eyes to represent flyers eye goggles What were the rest of the words? History Etc.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: Peter T.
Date: 29 Mar 00 - 09:49 PM

I don't remember the details of the song, but you need to be slightly more accurate about the hands -- the hands, with the thumb and finger touching are turned upside down and inward, then laid against the face with the rest of the fingers aligned along the cheek so that they represent both goggles and face mask. This is done in one movement. We began it with: Junior Birdmen, ASSEMBLE!! This was followed by a pterodactyl scream (an almost voiceless howl over the larynx). Then the song would begin.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: GUEST,Homeless
Date: 29 Mar 00 - 09:56 PM

My girls have this song on a Sharon, Lois, and Bram CD. I'll be seeing them tomorrow night and will copy down the words. Probably won't get them posted until Friday tho...

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: jofield
Date: 29 Mar 00 - 11:29 PM

"Up in the air, junior birdmen,
Up in the air, pilots true,
--------------------
-- when you have won your wings of tin.
So, up in the air junior birdmen,
Just send your boxtops in!"

(The only fragments I can remember.)

My uncle, ex-Army man, used to sing this. I always took it to be a satirization of those notorious egotists, the Army Air Corps (later the Air Force). He also used to sing "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder..", ending with "Nothing can stop the Army Air Corps! (Except the Luftwaffe)." This was WWII era inter-service humor.

James.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: Chocolate Pi
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 12:10 AM

I learned: "Up in the air, junior birdmen
Up in the air, looking down
Up in the air, junior birdmen
Keep your eyes upon the ground."
sometime in elementary school.

Chocolate Pi

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 01:02 AM

Up in the air, Junior Birdmen, (with goggles as per Peter)
Up in the air, up side down (demonstrate with loop de loop)
Up in the air, Junior Birdmen, (as before)
Keep your noses to the ground,(echo) noses to the ground
When you hear the postman ringing (stick index finger out)
Put on your wings of tin (spread arms wide)
And tell all the Junior Birdmen
To send their box tops i-i-in! (demonstrate tearing off and sending in)
That's all I ever learned. Of course if you don't like reinventing the wheel, you can always just go here in the database.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 01:10 AM

Oh, and on the "noses to the ground" line, get 'em down there, campers! It's remarkably hard to do with your "goggles" on, and you look the proper fool, which IS the point, after all.
On "wings of tin" the palms are held outstretched and parallel to the ground and you should tip side to side unsteadily.
In the last line, the boxtop is presented as if it were "Present ARMS!", but one handed and the salute is optional.
If you're gonna do it, do it right!
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: ADD: Your son's in the A-S-T-P
From: fox4zero
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 01:58 AM

I first heard "Junior Birdmen" in 1947 during my freshman year at Syracuse. There were an enormous number of WWII vet. students who were also starting college under the GI Bill. I believe that the song originated in the USAF as a parody of WWII "patriotic" songs.
Another (musically unrelated} song re: Vets in college was:

  
            You may have a son in the army  
            You may have a son overseas  
            But take down your service flag, mother  
            Your son's in the A-S-T-P *  
  
            Chor: T-S, T-S, T-A-S-T-P (repeat once)  
  
            He'll never get killed by a slide rule  
            Finding the square root of three  
            So take down your service flag, mother  
            Your son's in the A-S-T-P *  

* ASTP was a college program for lucky active service military during WWII. I believe that the initials stood for Armed Services Training Program.

The GI Bill of Rights included a basic college education for free. Books, slide rule, paints, brushes etc were included at US expense. This was, without doubt, the most intelligent and successful education program ever conceived by the federal government. From a financial viewpoint alone, the payback in income taxes has been tremendous....college graduates earned higher salaries than non-graduates and therefore pay higher income taxes.

(My wife says that I missed my calling and should have been a teacher) Larry Parish

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: Peter T.
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 08:16 AM

Now to adapt this to the Mudcat salute.....yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: Mooh
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 09:15 AM

I learned this as a child from my Dad who had so much of this stuff in his head that for years he'd still be able to surprise us with something we hadn't heard before. I remember riding down the road with my pals, a trillion miles per hour on bicycles, bellowing it as loud as we could. Oh to be young again...(Oh yeah, I just told Corey I was still young, on another thread.)

Up in the air with the junior bird men
Up in the air and upside down
Up in the air with the junior bird men
Keep your noses to the ground
And when you hear the grand announcement
That their wings are made of tin
Then you will know the junior bird men
Have sent their boxtops in

You need five boxtops, four bottombottoms, three wrappers, two labels and one thin dime.

Jeez, I haven't sung this in ages. What fun! Thanks.
Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: GUEST,Okiemockbird
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 10:21 AM

Here is an earlier thread on this same song.

T.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 12:22 PM

Both this song (which is, incidentally, a parody and its original are in DigiTrad. you can find them by a search for [Into the Air]. (sigh)

Subject: ADD Version: Junior birdman
From: pastorpest
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 04:23 PM

Following the lyrics already posted by Barbara I remember singing:

What'a you need?
You got five box tops (hold up five fingers),
four bottle caps (hold up four fingers),
three coupons (hold up three fingers),
two labels (hold up two fingers),
and one thin di-i-ime (make a small circle with one finger)
(Then we shouted) Oh my gracious, Oh my soul, I belong to the bird patrol. Caw, Caw Caw.

Subject: RE: Junior birdman
From: GUEST,Allan S,
Date: 30 Mar 00 - 08:40 PM

Thanks everyone for all the help. I also remember a spoken part at the end "Dad I want to join the air force" "Over my dead body" Make sound like a machine gun THen sing the first part again Thanks Allan

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: GUEST,Ken Hays
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 11:47 AM

I learned this song from my sixth grade teacher Mr. Richards in 1951.
This was what he taught us (of course with the hands making goggles)
I never knew where this song came from before.

Up in the air junior birdemen
Up in the air upside down
Up in the air junior birdmen
With your wheels up off the ground
When you hear those motors roaring
And you see those wings of tin
You will know that the junior birdmen
Have sent their boxtops in

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 12:55 PM

And there was me thinking Tom Lehrer made it all up!

(Intro to 'It makes a fellow proud' where he tells of the competition to write a stirring song to be the Army counterpart of the Navys' 'Anchor's Away' and the Air Forces' 'Up in the air, Junior Birdman').

LTS

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 08:27 PM

Yes, the Lehrer song was also the first place I ever heard of Junior Birdman. There's also something in the Lehrer song about boxtops, something like "It is written in the stars/He'll get his captain's bars/But he hasn't got enough boxtops yet."

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 11:17 AM

Ken Hays:

I was in the sixth grade in 1951, and had a teacher named Mr. Richards, whose wife was also a teacher at the same school. My school was in the central San Joaquin Valley, in California. Where was yours? By the way, I'm trying to picture the Mr. Richards of memory doing something so funny. He was mostly a serious sort, as I recall him.

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 01:50 PM

Of course, when I learned it back in the '40s, the third and fourth lines were sung:

"If you'd be good junior birdmen
Keep your nose up in the brown"

but I guess we were less couth back then.

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 02:39 PM

Ah yes... written because the army didn't have any... sorry, didn't have no tune.

LTS

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: GUEST,Sally
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 11:10 AM

I have a cyber friend who is looking for sheet music or the tune to this song. Does anyone have music for it. Or might have the talent to write it down?
Thanks in advance for any assitance.
Sally Marie

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: GUEST,Wayne
Date: 22 Sep 08 - 03:07 PM

What do the box tops, coupons, etc., have to do with the song? My wife remembers this being part of a cereal company promotion in the fiftys.

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 06:57 AM

The boxtops? That's top-quality denigration, that is.

The implication is that pilots' flying badges (that would be the "wings made of tin") must come in Wheaties boxes because everyone knows aviators aren't real soldiers with real badges that represent real military skills and accomplishments.

Subject: RE: Into the Air, Junior Birdman
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 07:01 AM

I can't check it at work here either on line or in the book, but try 'Too many words, not enough pictures' which is a lyric book of Tom Lehrer's songs, with pictures by Ronald Searle.

Or do you mean the original, real song?

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Into the Air, Junior Birdmen
From: GUEST,snowcass
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 12:10 AM

Jr Birds Men
Up in the air junior birds men
Up in the air upside down
Up in the air junior birds men
Get your wings up off the ground
And when you hear the postman's whistle
And you get your wings of tin
Then you'll know the junior bird men
Have sent his box tops in

It Takes…
one thin di-i-ime (make a small circle with one finger)
two box tops (hold up two fingers),
three coupons (hold up three fingers),
four wrappers (hold up four fingers),
And One stamped envelope

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Into the Air, Junior Birdmen
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 06:03 AM

UNABLE To Post with two URLS in one thread - so second photo below and sources shortened.

Junior Birdmen Hand formation

Publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst created the model-building organization, the Junior Birdmen of America.
Hearst papers ran columns offering advice and tips to Junior Birdmen and sponsored flying meets where members competed for prizes.
His faith in the winged gospel was embedded in the Junior Birdmen's motto: "Today pilots of models, Tomorrow model pilots."
centennialofflight.gov/essay/Social/winged_gospel/SH2.htm

Junior Birdmen Air Course - prepared by U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce.
This is the forty-ninth lesson in the Junior Birdmen air course prepared by the United States Bureau of Air Commerce.
You can obtain a booklet containing the reprint of the first 26 lessons by writing to the Junior Birdmen Wing Headquarters
care of this newspaper, enclosing five cents for cost and mailing. This reprint is fully illustrated.
loc.gov

It was a popular radio program.
Junior Birdmen of America, NBC, Dec. 12, 1936. Eight (8) phonorecords.
University of Maine Orono

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Into the Air, Junior Birdmen
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 15 Jun 09 - 06:04 AM

Junior Birdment PIN Insignia

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Into the Air, Junior Birdmen
From: GUEST,Barb
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 09:04 PM

One more line...after the one thin dime
Junior Birsdmen...synchronize your watches!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Into the Air, Junior Birdmen
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Aug 10 - 03:26 AM

http://www.makingmusicfun.net/htm/f_mmf_music_library_songbook/up_in_the_air_junior_bird_man_lyrics.htm