Little Orphant Annie
posted in Frenzied Daddy |My dad used to sing with ‘us kids.’ Singing was a way to pass the time when we were driving somewhere distant; my memories of the time singing with him are the main reason I don’t ever want to have a DVD player in the car; there’s a feeling of connection that I want to foster. I also remember him, once in a long while, reciting Casey at the Bat. And while I remember him reciting this poem too, it might have been in a kid’s poetry book, and when I read it I heard his voice. He only did it once or twice, if he actually did it, but I loved it. It’s definately something I can hear him speaking. This is the guy who taught me “How in the heck am I gonna wash my neck if it ain’t gonna rain no more,” and “Mary had a little lamb, she kept it in the closet… and every time she opened the door, she found a little deposit.”
Little Orphant Annie
By James Whitcomb RileyTo all the little children: — The happy ones; and sad ones;
The sober and the silent ones; the boisterous and glad ones;
The good ones — Yes, the good ones, too; and all the lovely bad ones.Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay,
An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away,
An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep,
An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep;
An’ all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun
A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales ‘at Annie tells about,
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!
more …
