Lyr Req: One day when I was walking

Subject: Lyr Req: One day when I was walking
From: emerald
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 01:25 PM

I have a friend who is 90+ and she is not in good health. She is trying to remember a song her mother sand to her when she was a little girl. All she can remember are a few words. One day when I was walking -- I met a wonderful boy -- he said he came from Kilarney -- I said that I did too -- some way we started talking -- he had a wonderful brough --. I anyone knows the song I would be veryi grateful for a reply. If possible, could the reply be sent to my e-mail address, [e-mail]. Thank you.

Robert Foss

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: One day when I was walking
From: Peace
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 02:34 PM

Where did she grow up?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Am A Pretty Little Dutch Girl
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 03:45 PM

Robert, I hope that someone knows the song you are seeking, for your sake and less importantly so because that song might be one of the sources for a children's rhyme verse which is generally titled "I Am A Pretty Little Dutch Girl" .

I'm sure this is not what you are seeking, but here's the children's rhyme and some commentary as found in Opies, "The Singing Game"
p. 452.

I AM A PRETTY LITTLE DUTCH GIRL
I am a pretty little Dutch girl.
As pretty as can be, be, be
And all the boys in the baseball team
Go crazy over me, me, me

My boy friend's name is Fatty,
He comes from Senoratti
With turned up toes and a pimple on his nose,
And this is how the story goes:

My mother sent me to the shop,
And told me not to stay, stay, stay
I met my boyfriend on the way
And stayed till Christmas Day, Day, Day .

First he gave me peaches,
Then he gave me pears
Then he gave me 25 cents
To kiss him on the stairs, stairs, stairs.
I gave him back his peaches,
I gave him back his pears,
I gave him back his 25 cents
And kicked him down the stairs, stairs, stairs.

One day when I was walking,
I saw my true love talking,
To a pretty little girl
With a strawberry curl,
And this is what he said:
I will T-A-K-E take you
to the P-A-R-K park,
I will K-I-S-S kiss you
In the D—R-K,
I will L-O-V-E love you
All the T-M-E time,
And the wedding bells will chime

=snip-

Here's some commentary from that Opie book:
"This light-hearted love story would be recognized as American even if the earliest recording did not come from New York. It appears to have arrived in Britain in 1959, when it was first noted, and it spread through the country like wildfire. A girl fround Twickenham taught it to the children of her new school in Wilmslow. A girl from
London SE8 taught it to the children in her new school in Worchester. A girl brought it back to her school in Spennymoor from the children's ward of Durham County Hospital where 'every was playing it". …But oral tradition, under pressure could not preserve the unfamiliar words, which diversified charmingly.

The boy friend Fatty, originally from Cincinatti, is now from "Sixolatti", "Switzerlatti", "Madagassi", ot "an Irish Naafi",; or his identiy now "Tony from the land of Palony", or "Shallow from Portomallow", or "Martin from the Isle of Tartan", or "Sailor from Venezueloa" {it seems that rhyming a boy's name with a home town is part of the game}; or he has 'a red, red nose and cherries on his toes", or 'a pickle on his nose and ten black toes, 'or bubble gum feet that smell so sweet".

The text given here is an assemblage of all the possible component parts of the story which stem from different places. Children most often combine the first, second, and fifth parts , or the first, third, and fourth, In the very many versions collected almost every combination has been found, except all five parts in one version."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Am A Funny Dutch Girl
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 03:52 PM

Here's a form of that children's rhyme as found in Roger D. Abrahams Peter Abrahams' "Jump Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary" {published in 1969 for the American Foklore Society by the University of Tennessee Press; Rhyme # 202 (pg. 69)

I AM A FUNNY DUTCH GIRL
I am a funny (pretty) Dutch girl,
As funny (pretty) as can be;
And all the boys around the block
Are crazy after me.
I have a boyfriend named Sammy
He comes from Alabamy
With rings on his nose
And pickles on his toes,
And that's the way my story goes.

-snip-

Category given: usually a hand clap rhyme

Sources given:

Musick HF 7 (1948), 11 {West Virginia}
Abrahmas, KFQ, 8 (1963), 8, {Pennsylvania, 1959), Two variants, one ends with "He gave me some peaches/He gave me some pears", etc.
Abrahams, SFQ, 27 {1963}, 200, 208, {Texas}, Seven variants: one begins "I am a funny bunny", one "My boyfriend's name is Sammy."
Witheres {1964}, 100 {Iowa{. Includes "My boyfriend's name is Michael./He rides on a motorcycle."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Am A Pretty Dutch Girl
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 04:04 PM

My apologies. It seems that there is already three Mudcat threads on this children's rhymes.

Here's one: Lyr Req: A Little Dutch boy (and Dutch girl)

And here's two: Lyr Req: I'm a little dutch girl

And here's three: Lyr Add: I'M A LITTLE DUTCH GIRL (jumprope chant)

**

I still think there may be connection between the handclap {or jumprope rhyme} and the song that Robert is seeking.

Best wishes to you, Robert, and also to your friend.

Azizi

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: One day when I was walking
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 04:32 PM

Afraid I've no idea. As I was walking/walked out/roved out seems to be a massive folk cliche. I can think of at least five songs that start like that.