Memories: Minnie Frisby

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text excerpt

I must tell you a bit about my Grandfather; wee, he was very bent with Rheumatism and had a job to get about, and he used to wear a smock; he was a merry old soul and loved us kids , and we used to like to get him to sing to us; Oh, and I must tell you that Brooke’s were living next to us now, just up the road, and of course they were always playing at our place ; there was Moke as we call him (his name is Moses) he is about 2 years older than me; then Nancy (or Annie) about a month younger than me ; well when my Grandfather used to come thrashing he would always  bring a packet of Cocoa, and make it in a bason [sic]and he used to like to soak his bread in it , well manys the time when his back has been turned, we would drink all his cocoa, but he never used to mind or make any fuss about it or we should have copped out; no, all he seemed to do was sing about it; and such quaint ditties, I should like to quote one or two, - this is what he would sing about Moke:- “Mokie Pokey, Winkie Wham, Mokie likes his Taters done, a mealy one, a waxy one, the King of the Calico Islands” ; and “See kidnay taters how they flew, like shots and balls at Waterloo, like shots and balls at Waterloo, to wait upon Freddie the tailor. Now Freddie was a nice young man, his head was like a warming pan, and every night he had a plan to go and visit Miss Judy Gann; now Judy Gann run home to roost, and bumped her head against a post, and then the fool gave up the ghost, to wait on Teddy the tailor”. How we used to laugh. Then he would sing about Nancy, and this is it “How sweet is the morn and loud blows the horn, and through the fields we’ll go – o, for all me fancy dwells on Nancy, and I’ll sing Talli – Ho – o” and then we would laugh again, and perhaps he would sing “Old King Cole” and I have never heard anyone sing it like he did. 

excerpt from 'Memories: Minnie Frisby' pp. I:8 (397 words)

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