Dandoo- Bird (NC) pre1943 Brown B
[This excellent text was supplied by Dean W. E. Bird who was involved in education from the 1930s and was president of Western Carolina College, in Cullowhee, NC. No date was given in the Brown Collection Volume 2 but it was published 1952 covering the years 1912-1943.]
B. 'Dandoo.' From Dean W. E. Bird, Cullowhee, Jackson county. A somewhat longer text than A, with expansion of the refrain. The manuscript has a notation that seems to mean that this song is sometimes sung with a refrain "For gentle, for Jenny, for Rosamaree," the refrain commonly used with it in New England versions [also Sharp D].
1 There was an old man who lived in the West
Dandoo
There was an old man who lived in the West
To my clash-i me clingo
There was an old man who lived in the West,
He had an old woman who was none of the best.
Lingarum! Lingorum! Smackarorum! Curlimingorum! to my clash-i me clingo!
2 One day the old man came in from the plow,
Says, 'O my good wife, is my dinner ready now?'
3 'There's a piece of bread a-lying on the shelf.
If you want any more you can bake it yourself,'
4 I took me a knife and I went to the barn
And I cut me a hickory as long as my arm.
5 Then I went out to my sheep pen
And I grabbed me up an old sheepskin.
6 I threw that skin on my old wife's back
And with that stick I went whickety-whack.
7 'I'll tell my mother, I'll tell all my kin
How you beat me up with a hickory limb.'
8 'Go tell your mother, go tell all your kin
I was only tanning my old sheep skin.'
9 Next time the old man came in from the plow,
Says, 'O good wife, is my dinner ready now?'
10 She flew all around and she spread the board
And 'Yes, my dear husband' was her every word.
11 And ever since then she has been a good wife,
And I hope she will be to the end of her life.