Great Expectations.... and a song...

I borrowed this from bonho, who borrowed it from someone else.

The quote comes from another blog..

See how we all strive to help?


"Adrienne sez, "We've created a 'live' Banned Book Display at our library [Twin Hickory Public Library, Glen Allen, VA]. We have volunteer readers who sit in the display and read (silently) banned and challenged books. So far it's gotten a lot of attention – we hear a lot of 'Mom, what are those people doing in there?' The best part has been hearing parents explain to their kids what the display is all about which is exactly what we wanted to happen!" Twin Hickory Public Library, Glen Allen, VA "


Some of the more RIDICULOUS banned books..

I want to go and sit and read The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Where’s Waldo? or Shakespeare or Little Red Riding Hood or Huckleberry Finn or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or...

Some of the most provocative books, aren't they.. good thing someone's working to ban them.. specially the Hungry Caterpillar.

Forget the economy for a moment folks...

This is the real enemy...

And, of course, this sets me on a tale.

When I was teaching, they had me sub for music class. 4th grade. One of the songs they were learning (a folk music lesson, I recall) was..

wait for it..

the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

For those of you too young to know, it tells of a time when hobos rode the rails and times were tough and it was about a 'hobo heaven'

Here are the original lyrics.

One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning
I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains
So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs
The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains

Only that's NOT what they were teaching in that 4th grade class... OH NO! Those lyrics were too... too... too..

well..

wrong.

Not Politically Correct..

wrong..

So they changed some things...

More like this (I don't have the one from school, but this looks right, except the school one substituted wooden legged cows for cops somewhere)

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out ev'ry night
Where the boxcars are all empty
And the sun shines ev'ry day
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Oh, the buzzin' of the bees in the peppermint trees
'Round the soda water fountains
Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And little streams of lemonade
Come a-tricklin' down the rocks
The hobos there are friendly
And their fires all burn bright
There's a lake of stew and soda, too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Oh, the buzzin' of the bees in the peppermint trees
'Round the soda water fountains
Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

WHY BOTHER TO TEACH THE DAMNED SONG and talk about it as a FOLK song... what the hell is a FOLK song if you change the words and...

well..

You all know me...

So, of course, my class got a history lesson that day instead of just music.

We learned the original.

We discussed WHY those men might want whiskey and no jails and what a railroad bull was and why you'd want a rubber toothed dog and a wooden legged cop.

And no one was hurt by the explanation that THINGS WERE WHAT THEY WERE!

so there...

now see what you started!?