Some of these are down right weird....

   The older I get, the more I think about the meaning of one's life, the experiences and  lessons learned from those experiences and how one builds personal character. But the real question for me has been not what we learned but  how and when we learned it. In many cases, we know life's lessons are learned on  playgrounds or  athletic fields, in the classroom or at the dinner table.
   Perhaps the lessons are learned from television shows (I have referred to the early days of the Andy Griffith Show in  past blogs) or possibly by the stories we hear or the books we read. Or maybe we learned them from those “morally charged” or “value laden ” rhymes and jingles we have come to know and often memorized as a child.

   At a recent antique auction we purchased some older kids' books. Part of the package included a teaching series of children's literature, one entitled Rhyme and Jingle Reader, copyright 1912. Bored by the recent reporting of the political candidates debates on television, I decided to refresh my memory with the all time favorites. (Where did some of these ever come from?)

   Who doesn't remember sitting on Grandma's knee and listen as she told the sad tale Jack and Jill.........

                                        Jack and Jill went up the hill
                                         To fetch a pail of water;
                                         Jack fell down and broke his crown,
                                         And Jill came tumbling after.

   Poor Jack! And she would always end  it by gently dropping me on the floor.

   And then there is the famous story of a crazy egg sitting on a wall.

                                           Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

                                            Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
                                            All the King’s horses, all the King’s men
                                            Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

   This little rhyme always cracked me up. Can you picture an egg sitting on a wall and then all of a sudden.......splat!

    And who didn't have a friend called Georgey..................

                                             Georgey-porgey, pudding and pie,
                                             Kissed the girls and made them cry.
                                             When the boys came out to play,
                                             Georgey-porgey ran away.

   Now I have never seen a cat play a fiddle or a cow jumping over the moon, although I have seen a few cows 'mooning'. And much to my surprise, after looking at the local newspaper, there is a rock band made up of cats coming to Maine in the next week or two. Who would have guessed that in 1912 someone would have predicted the future of rock music and the important roll cats play.....

                                                Hey, diddle, diddle!
                                                The cat and the fiddle,
                                                The cow jumped over the moon;
                                                The little dog laughed
                                                To see such sport,

                                                And the dish ran away with the spoon.

   Dish? Spoon? Running off together? Where did that come from?

   Back in the day, I am sure many of these nursery rhymes were designed to teach good values and life lessons. Some were even used to teach math. For example...

                                                 Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
                                                 A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
                                                 If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
                                                Where is the peck of peppers Peter Piper picked?

   The first question is...how many pickled peppers are in a peck and then, what did he do with peck? If he ate them, he was probably a pretty sick boy. And if he decided to sell them and keep the money, would he have been a young Donald Trump?

   Along with Peter, there was Simon, Simple Simon, and his first encounter with what has now become known as the 'mobile food cart' in some towns and villages. And like many today, Simple had a problem,  no money...

                                               Simple Simon met a pieman,
                                               Going to the fair;
                                               Says Simple Simon to the Pieman,
                                                          “Let me taste your ware.”
                                               Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
                                                          “Show me first your penny.”
                                               Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
                                                          “Indeed, I have not any

   Poor Simple. He had no money and was probably hungry. Maybe he was one of the first illegal immigrants seeking to sneak  into  a new country.

   The Rhyme and Jingle Reader is filled with rhymes and stories, many of which are familiar, but there are a few even new to me. But, if these rhymes and poems were used as lessons, for life, it explains a great deal about the attitudes and fears of that generation.

                                            Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

                                             Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
                                             Rapping at the window, crying through the lock,
                                            “Are the children in their beds, for now it’s 
                                              eight o’clock?”

   Today, if Wee Willie were an actual person, he would probably be arrested.

   But, back to my grandmother's knee for just a moment. The following was one of her favorites. I am not sure why I remember that and please don't ask me  because I just don't know...

                                                    Trit-trot, trit-trot,
                                                    To buy a penny cake;
                                                    Home again, home again,
                                                    I met a black-snake.
                                                           I  picked up a stone
                                                   And breaky backy-bone
                                                   Trit-trot, trit-trot
                                                   All the way home

   ???  Perhaps she  wanted to own a horse or just liked to say "trit-trot:!! And the answer to the 'how much is in a  peck?” Sixteen dry pints!!!  I said some of these were down right weird.