Wednesday, November 24

Grade School Songs

I remember singing quite a few. It might have been because I went to a Catholic school (one of a million Sacred Hearts, I'm sure), but I don't think so. Last night, I remembered a great one, one we even danced to, in second grade. I think it was the Spring Program, or some more creative name. We stood on the stage of the gymnasium, with yellow circles taped to our hips, and gyrated to:

"Oh, Banana-nana-nana-nana, Nana-nana-nana-nana, Nana-nana-nana-nana SLUG!!"

Musical genius, that one. In kindergarten, there was a song about a triceratops that I remember the tune to from time to time, and there are some (unfortunate) pictures of a Christmas pagent, in which we all dressed up as elfs--complete with pointed paper hats--and dragged our parents out to dance with us.

I remembered the slug song last night because I've come to discover that in Missouri, there actually are slugs. Many, many slugs. They live all around our apartment complex, and they're sort of fun to watch. For someone very unladylike, they might be fun to play with. As we all know, I've never fit that description, and I find them fascinating.

When I was little, there were a few slugs I got to play with, but that was a rarity, and they were little tiny things that I found in the garden. Here, it seems that they're in a much more slug-friendly climate, and they grow much bigger. The ones from my childhood were maybe an inch long; some of these are longer than my little finger. It's great!

Seems like the wonders of Missouri will never cease. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some pictures (bear with my tomboyishness for a little while, will you?). I hope they'll stick around, so I can play with them again, it's a bit colder here today, it actually snowed for a bit. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 80 degrees again, which just goes to prove that they're right. If you don't like the weather here, wait 2o minutes, it's likely to change.

Do any of you remember the strange things they made you sing about in grade school? What were they?

5 comments:

Michael said...

momma made me mash my m&m's (oh what a mushy mess!)

For a real thrill, pour table salt on slugs.

great post. keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I remember an inane song about "Punchenello from the Zoo" which involved one person doing an action and then everyone else copying it, and singing "We can do it too, Punchenello, Punchenello. We can do it too, Punchenello from the Zoo!". I think Punchenello was a clown. No slugs, though.

Emily said...

You need Haloscan, girlie.

In other news, I don't remember singing ANY songs in grade school. We weren't as happy and peppy as the Catholics, apparently. I did sing a long of camp songs though. Those I remember pretty well.

Sunny said...

I've considered Haloscan. Perhaps I should stop considering and get right to it? Oh, if it weren't for the lazy in me, much would get done.

Curious about who the anonymous one is, though, mightily. :)

Jim said...

Hiya,

Great topic! You should check out www.thesneeze.com. Steve is compiling a list of childhood songs from around the world. He already got an offer for a book deal. Heh.

Genius loves company, no?