“A Laundry Song”

Description

"I used to work in the kitchen And wash the pans and crocks, But now I work in the laundry And wash the stinking socks." Brought up well, the singer falls in with a bad crowd, and stands guard during a robbery. The others escape; he ends in prison

Supplemental text

Laundry Song, A
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chickering,
Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, pp. 358-359. "Obtained...
from a boy of fifteen in the Detention Home, Detroit."

I used to work in the kitchen
And wash the pans and crocks,
But now I work in the laundry
And wash the stinking socks.

I met a gang of seven men
Who said, "Now come with me,
And do as you are told to do,
And fun you sure will see."

(Stanzas 1, 6 of 11)

Notes

The informant from whom this song was collected said that he did not know where he learned the song -- but he was "a boy of fifteen in the Detention Home, Detroit." One suspects he or someone he knew composed it, based on something like "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." - RBW

Cross references

References

  1. Gardner/Chickering 148, "A Laundry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
  2. ST GC148 (Partial)
  3. Roud #3674
  4. BI, GC148

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
Found in: US(MW)