When I was a kid, it seems like we went on a lot of road trips. Either that, or those are just the happy things I remember most. One of the best parts was the songs. This was before 18-disc cd changers and ipod and all that, we just had our voices. And some sick songs my mom taught us.

a couple of them are on this site.

That particular one was a favorite. I don’t think we thought of it as being racist back then, it was more about the “crazy old man” than the “from china” part.

One not listed was one that incorporated nursery rhymes into it, and was a game to see if we could come up with another one quickly.

Such as:

Little Miss Muffett
Sat on her tuffett
eating her curds and whey
along came a spider
who sat down beside her
…
and threw her out the window, the window
the second story window
if you can’t sing a rhyme and sing it on time
we’ll throw you out the window

at which time is was someone else’s turn.

It was on one of these road trips where I realized that the word “squirrel” is really weird if you say it too many times. It loses all meaning. (Picture taken from this site, which deserves its own post)