Lyr Add: Winnebagoes

Subject: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: harpgirl
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 02:48 PM

Winnebagoes

by Don Grooms
(as sung by Doug Gauss on Welcome to Florida)

They got their own CB's and color TV's
And every third car on the road
is some old man from Michigan
in a gol durn Winnebago

See them bumper to bumper on the highway
You can hear them yelling breaker one nine
But they only ever stop to buy what they call pop
and to pump out the sewer line
got decals on the window sayin' where they been
and bumper stickers sayin' where their bound
Pull into KOA and hit the hay
and their feet never touch the ground

They got their own CB's and color TV's
and every third car on the road
Is ma and pa from Saginaw
In a gol durn Winnebago

Now Winnebago I'm sure you know is an old Indian name
It means standing, stagnant putrid waters, it ain't no claim to fame
I'd like to drive for hours through the land of flowers
The home of the Seminole
Never see one man from Michigan
in no gol durn Winnebago

They got their own CB's and a color TV
and every third car on the road
is some reprobate from New York state
in a gol durn Winnebago

Ya can't go around sleepin on the ground
in a sleepin bag with just your clothes
The cops'll run you in less you're from Michigan
in a gol darn Winnebago

But some day when I'm old and my reflexes are slowed
And I got no business on the road
I'm gonna move up North
(spoken) I'm gonna rent me one of them 175 foot long Winnebagoes
I'm gonna find the biggest road you've got there
at five o'clock in the afternoon in the left hand lane
right turn signal on, I'm gonna hire me some kids sit in the back throw garbage out the window
have me a seatbelt dangling out of one of the doors makin' sparks on the pavement
In my gol durn Winnebago

They got their own CB's
And color Tv's and every third car on the road
is some novices from the provinces
or some old man from Michigan in a gol darn Winnebago




love, harpgirl

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:34 PM

That the name Winnebago means "stagnant, putrid waters" has little validity. This name for the Sioux Hotcâk (Winnebago) people and nation has many theories behind it, but the most likely is that it was a name applied by (enemy) neighboring tribes like the Anishinabe, and meant roughly "stinking bastards."
The Hotcâk, given the name Winnebago, ceded the area of Winnebago County along with much other territory in 1837; their origins centered in the green bay, Wisconsin area.

See Hotcâ Encyclopedia: Hotcâ Encyclopedia

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:36 PM

Oh well- http://hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.Introduction.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: harpgirl
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:47 PM

...sigh....Pedants!


Don was Seminole and a journalism prof at University of Florida. I think he felt that "polluted waters people" was a good moniker for Florida tourists....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: harpgirl
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:48 PM

oops, I meant Cherokee, didn't I Bruce???? sorry Don! Damn, now I'm just not sure...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 04:41 PM

This "Hotcâgara (ho CHUHN g(a)rah)" stuff sounds pedantic to me. I've always known them (well, not always; I didn't know anything about Indians before I came to Minnesota) as the Ho-Chunks.

See The Ho-Chunk Nation and The Ho-Chunk Casino.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: open mike
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 07:17 PM

HOT CAKES??! INDEED..
THAT EAGLE'S SCREAM GOT MY HACKLES UP! The reservation i am familiar with is where the
NEBRASKA winnebago tribe
is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 11:01 PM

Hey, you pedants! C'mon, tell Harpy what a great song it is. This is "the season" here in Florida, and the snowbirds are everywhere.
-Joe, visiting Mom & Dad in the land of the ever-blinking turn signal-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 11:23 PM

As Jon Campbell sings, "Winne de come, winne de go!"

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 01:22 AM

Hey, Harp, what a great song it is. ~~ copied and pasted from Joe's post.

Not to be too pedanty here, but in Northern Illinois you can find Winnebago County, including the metropolis of Rockford.   Now just west of Rockford you'll find the much smaller town of Winnebago and the Winnebago School District, pretty commonly referred to as Bago. And yes, their athletic teams are referred to as the Winnebago Indians. No extra charge for all that nearly useless information.

Oh, before I leave, I repeat, what a great song it is. I really did enjoy reading it, and not just because Joe told me to do this.

By the way, HG, Ralph Stanley is going to be at the Folk Festival this year. Is this the year you're going to make it up?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: harpgirl
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 09:11 AM

Hi Dale
Bill Erskine just left my house five minutes ago on his way south and he insists this is the year I come! I'm trying to fit it in around my work schedule. Work really does get in the way of music doesn't it?

Hi Joe   I put up the Gandy Bridge song for you btw, since you're often down that way and are there right now, I see!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Stephen R.
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 09:38 AM

As the party guilty of starting this whole thing, I want to thank harp girl for providing me with the text of a song I heard on the radio once, about 20 years ago, and have hoped to come across ever since. I have searched the internet and can find NO indication that it has ever been published as sheet music, included on a CD, or anything of the sort. Where could I find the music? Any ideas?

Stephen R.

PS If 'stinking water' is wrong etymology, it's at least easy to see where it came from. I would have assumed that _winne-_ meant 'water' too.

S

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Stephen R.
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 09:46 AM

Whoops! Missed the ref to Don Gauss and Welcome to Florida. Guess that's what to look for. Thanks again, harpgirl--I owe you one!

Stephen R.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 09:56 AM

If the subject grabs you, check "Winneba*" in DigiTrad. We have more than you'd think.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 07:44 PM

WINNEBAGO!!!!

Sorry, having an Arrogant Worms moment there.... 8-)

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 08:02 PM

By the way, "gol durn" is the cleaned-up-so-it-can-be-played-at-the-nice-family-oriented-folk-festival version. In campground song circles, Don was known to use a somewhat stronger epithet.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Winnebagoes
From: Stephen R.
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 03:59 PM

Here's what I have found in three days: It was on Don Grooms's 'Walk Proud, My Son' ca 1980, which is an LP. Doug Gauss sings it, but apparently neither nor anyone else has recorded it since 1980. It is not available on CD of cassette. At least, if it is I sure can't find it. Now, what do you know that I don't about this?

Stephen R.