Daisy- Mildred Peterson (NC) 1923 Brown A
[Brown Collection on NC Folklore, volume 3, version A of Coffee Grows. Cf. 1893 version in JOAFL.
Coffee Grows is also found in the mid-west as the play-party song, "Four in the Middle," and is so titled in five versions in the Wolf Folklore collection on-line. From this, apparently comes the unusual title "Frog in the Middle."
R. Matteson 2018]
78. Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees
A favorite play-party song pretty much everywhere that play-parties are — or have been — in vogue is made up of three elements: a stanza beginning with the line liere chosen as title, another beginning "pretty little pink" (sometimes '"my blue-eyed gal") and another beginning "I'll put my knapsack on my back." It goes back to the Mexican War. As Sandburg remarks ( ASb 166): "a dance song known in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois became a knapsack and marching tune with Mexican War references." For its range see the McLendon finding list, SFLQ viii 204 and 221, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 219-20) and the Ozarks (OFS III 296-7, 309, 311). Sometimes only two of the elements appear, and sometimes only one. Sometimes New Orleans or Quebec appears in place of Mexico, carrying the reference back to the War of 1812.
A. 'Daisy.' Communicated by Mildred Peterson of Bladen county, probably in 1923.
1. Coffee grows in the white oak tree,
The rivers run with brandy.
My little gal is a blue-eyed gal
As sweet as any candy.
2. Fly around, my blue-eyed gal.
So fly around, my daisy;
Every time I see that gal
She almost runs me crazy.