“Old Virginny Never Tire”

Description

Floating verses: "There is a gal in our town... The hollow of her foot makes a hole in the ground." "As I was walking... I met a terrapin and a toad." Chorus: "Old folks, young folks, clear the kitchen (x2), Old Virginny never tire."

Notes

This, like "Charleston Gals," is one of those hard-to-assess songs, since nearly ever word floats. Roud lumps it with the even more amorphous "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" family. It appears to me, though, that the chorus is distinct enough and widespread enough that the two should be kept separate. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"
• cf. "Charleston Gals" (style)
• cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (floating lyrics)
• cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (floating lyrics)

References

1. BrownIII 413, "Clare de Kitchen" (1 text)
2. Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 109, "Ol' Virginny Never Tire" (1 text, 1 tune); also some fragments (of this or something) on p. 110; also pp. 110-112 (no title) (1 unusually long text, attributed to T. Rice; curiously, this appears to be identical except for orthography to the version in Hazel Felleman, _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, pp. 466-467)
3. Roud #751
4. BI, ScaNF109