Avid readers might have noticed that I have rarely mentioned my mother-in-law.
There is a simple reason for this. She would need a post as long as War and Peace [and would probably have a similar title].
Anyway she did teach me a couple of things that have been very useful in helping me get through life so I thought I’d hand them on.
The Marrow Song
A marrow’s a banana’s father
A marrow’s a banana’s Dad
It started life as a gherkin
So it hasn’t done so bad.
So if you step on a banana
Remember this my lad
A marrow’s a banana’s father
A marrow’s a banana’s Dad.
and, not forgetting………..
The Two Little Sausages Song
Once in the corner of a ham and beef shop
Two little sausages sat.
One was a lady, the other was a gentleman,
Sausages are like that.
What a pair of silly little sausages -
Theirs was a very bitter pill;
They snuggled up together
In the cold and wint’ry weather -
Theirs was a very mixed grill,
Tra-la-la-la-la-la,
Very – mixed – grill.
.
(I think they are music hall songs her mother used to sing to her. My Edwardian Grandmother thought the one about the sausages was very naughty. Gilbert & Sullivan was her more usual fare; she had a pretty singing voice and, greatly daring, she was once one of the Three Little Maids in an amateur production of the Mikado. I remember seeing a sepia photograph of her in a long, floaty white lace dress, a huge hat with a veil, and a small parasol, on her way to a garden party. Autres temps… Lo,TG Ed)
Oh yes; the other thing that she taught me was to open the drawer to the left of her sink very slowly and carefully.
(Well, obviously. Otherwise the box of out of date sixpences would be shaken out of date order and the heads might end up looking in the wrong direction. Sheesh. Lo,TG Ed)
Match of the Day
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Stumble It!
16 Comments
I had no idea marrows and bananas were even related!
I do like the idea of all the out of date coins lined up in a drawer. I thought I was the only one…
Topple those coins and you died the death of the diatribe!
sausages spoon?
Well they do over here …… I have no idea what American wieners get up to ……
I have no idea either; we stick to bratwurst
Bratwurst are the worst brats for spooning …… so I’m told ……
I love Gilbert and Sullivan, was raised on a diet of it. Since my parents controlled the hifi and what was available to play on it, I learned the entire Mikado by heart by the time I was 10,and HMS Pinafore too. Later in my life I played in the pit orchestra for several other G&S operettas. That experience made me treasure them even more, I discovered that they actually wrote interesting parts for the violas in the orchestrations, which is a lot more than I can say for Lerner and Lowe or Rogers and Hammerstein!
“My object all sublime, I will achieve in time, to let the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime! And make each prisoner pent unwillingly represent a source of innocent merriment, of innocent merriment!”
My parents had a friend who was in the chorus of loads of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas so I saw loads of them as well ….. always good fun and enough going on to stop a child getting fidgety ……..
I was in a school production of ‘Yeomen of the Guard’….thank goodness there were no camera phones in those days….
I bet you were a brilliant Beefeater – you weren’t Sir Richard Cholmondeley were you?
I was just a yeoman, but i’ve just remembered that one of the other kids at that school was Mark Jefferis (don’t think he spelled it that way back then) who got a part in a BBC series of ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’ while he was still there. Now a puppeteer apparently http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_Jefferis
Nobody I was at school with amounted to anything as grand as a puppeteer …. all rather boring I’m afraid …… actually, thinking about it, I haven’t a clue really as I’m in contact with nobody from my halcyon days …..
Good thing those bananas grow up to be marrows….banana rum is soooo difficult to make.
I always loved Iolanthe with the “half a fairy” line occurring over and over.
“I’m only half a fairy. . .”
“Which half?”
…. and that is a VERY good question and of vital importance ……
Considering humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas… we can assume that we are related to marrows too!
(Apparently Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College, London is credited with stating this information.)
Of course, since you’re the Daddy, you are even more closely related than the rest of us younger generations! With that said, I believe it is fair enough to call you Daddy Marrow!
Wait… that doesn’t make the rest of us bananas does it?
P.S. unfortunately I know very little about classic operas and have never been graced with the experience (damn Western culture)…. but I do know that they are only performed in Italian and German.
Yes it does actually ….. thank heavens for your infallible logic ….. tee hee
I sometimes wonder whether people like Steve Jones buy their qualifications off the Interweave …… my DNA is obviously more closely related to the gingernut biscuit and sofa ……
Nice ickle ditties there … what was the tune that went with them??
Love the book of matches ….
I’m racking my brain how to explain the tunes ….. I think tra la la ….. tra la la …. tra …… la …. la ……. la ………… tra ……………. la is the best way ………. all together now!!!
Ditto me on the book of matches.
I always knew you were a bit ditto young Fraccy …. tee hee heeeee
All Canadians are, silly; I thought you knew that.
TYPO!!!!! – too many commas ……
You wish.
It doesn’t help though ….. *looks wistful*
Okay … *clears throat* tra la la ….. tra la la …. tra …… la …. la ……. la ………… tra ……………. la
That was a very good effort!!! …… in a way …….
It made ME laugh.
I’m completely lost and yet, oddly, craving knackwurst. I was once in a school production… as I recall I was a stalk of broccoli. Anyway, best to avoid death by anything, especially diatribe. I will take your careful approach to mother-in-laws and apply that technique in my own life. (**Note to self: never open any drawers to the left of anything**)
It is possible to be trained to open drawers on the left of things but my advice would be to stick to cutlery drawers …… although they must be treated with some caution ……. obviously ……
BTW …. I hope your interpretation of a broccoli stalk wasn’t wooden …….
Oooh no, best leave the cutlery drawers well alone. Only think of the possibilities.
Definitely leave the cuttelery drawers alone – they contain sharp things which may damage my prize-winning moustache.
[falsetto on] Three ickle girls are we tra la la[falsetto off][exeunt left with broken leg]
Eeeek – you’ve reached number 1 !!!!….. NOT with the singing …… obviously.
I refuse to keep cutlery in my drawers…
Indeed. Those Ginsu knives are bloody hell if you keep them in your drawers!
….. and they rattle when you waddle ……
hello daddy!!
oh dear, i have no idea at all that Marrow is actually related with a Banana!!! Oh, this is really a food for thought! Or, should I call it a fruit for thought?
Always something that I learn in here. Ah well.
Take care. 
xxxxx
Baby!!! how you doing back in the homeland? …..
If you forget everything that you learn here it’ll stand you in very good stead later on in life …… probably ………
nice matches!
I am rather bookish actually ……..
I love those sepia photographs and the floaty fashions…. hmmm … just born at the wrong time I suppose!!!
Oooo …. you’d better buy some floaty dresses and get a partial suntan ….. sorted!!!
I have both, (suntan not so partial) but nobody appreciates the niceties of that age now…. shame!
Fair lady, I beg to disagree – my kerchief is still knotted above my brow …….. mayst I offer thou a gingernut of the finest quality?
Sir, how kind, but I fear I must decline your offer. I have my waistline to consider…
For more of the same do watch the film ‘Somewhere in Time’ Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in a time traveling sepia print world. Fantastic!!!!
I shall prepare to go to the Amazon forthwith …..
‘and if we fail? we fail, but stir your courage to the sticking post and we shall not fail’
I could always try to copy mine and send it!!!!
Fear not fair maid [yer right!] I shall succeed in mine endeavours …. up the creek avec un paddle je pense …..
then, of course, there was Jabberwocky, not to mention the Walrus and the Carpenter…..too wordy for this little blog…..not only, but also:
hong kong chinaman
muchy muchy sad
me aflaid
all the tlade
velly velly bad
noey joke
blokey bloke
makey shutty shop
chong chong china man
chop chop chop
chinaman a money makey all a lifey long
washy washy something something
washy washy wong (??)
once me takey steally collar
policeymanny come
putty me in such disglacey
up they celly me
chorus (hong kong chinaman etc)
perhaps Lo can fill in the missing bits?!
Then ther was also chong kina……but I’ll spare you for now…….(veiled threat)
There are quite a few ’senior moments’ in there ….. tee hee
She Who Must Be Dismayed is cooking at the moment …. I’ll tell her that help is needed.
Oh dear. Ok, here goes (I can give no guarantees for the spelling being authentic! ) -
Chong kina Chong kina
Chong Chong Kina Kina,
Nagasaki Yokohama
Hako Dako Hoi
Yari yari yari mooki bah
Tiperah hoogelly chino
Yari yari yari mooki ba-ah
Traven corri penny put rhino
Chinaman no money makey all a lifey long
Washy washy once me takey
Washy washy wrong
Once me takey steally collar
Pleecymanny come
Putty me in such disglacey
Up they celly me
Ching ching chinaman
Muchy muchy sad
Me aflaid
All aflaide
Velly velly bad
Noey joke
Blokey bloke
Makey shutty shop
Ching ching china man
Chop chop chop
velly good…I think you’re missing another yari? yari yari yari yari moochi ba-ah etc xx
on second thorts I’m sure it’s all the tlade (trade)…….?
….. and here I am again, back in that parallel universe ……. *sigh*
Def add another yari and yes, I do think ‘tlade’ – it’s amazingly difficult to type gibberish.
I seem to manage ……
well….we didn’t like to say……