Got to thinking in the night last night, does anyone recite nursery rhymes anymore to their little children? I don't know. I have my doubts that many do or maybe the young parents themselves don't know many nursery rhymes. I use to recite them to my kids. My daughter, when she was only two, had so many memorized. My friend was amazed and would often ask her to recite one or another. When I was little I had a few I especially liked, but this one for some reason was my favorite. I can still hear my Mom reciting it for me, I hear the inflections in her voice and the places she would pause, etc. Of course in writing it here I can't incorporate those things into it. But I will write it here anyway. One note, in later years she would also recite it to her grandchildren. She would sit them on her knees and bounce her knees up and down as she said it.
I had a little hobby horse.
His name was Dapple Gray.
His head was made of pea straw.
His tail was made of hay.
He could gallop.
He could trot.
He could carry a mustard pot,
all around the gum stalk.
Whoa... haw... gee...
I sent him upstairs to make up his bed.
He kicked up his heels as high as his head.
I sent him in the cellar to get me some beer.
I found him in the cream pitcher clear to his ear.
I sent him in the garden to get me some sage.
I found him in the kitchen kissing the old maid.
Now, here's one more. As a child, well always I guess, I had curly hair, sometimes more curl than others, but always a bit of curl. The reason I list this next rhyme is because when my Mom would tell it to me she would take a few strands of my hair in front and bring them down to create a curl in the front. I was sure then that this rhyme was about me and only for me.
I had a little girl,
and she had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good
she was very, very good.
And when she was bad
she was horrid.
And that's it for this morning. Hi de ho, and away I goooooo....