Ripest Apples- Mabs Hall (Sus) 1987 Yates
[From: VT107 Ripest Apples and on VT115CD, As I went down to Horsham. Recorded by Mike Yates. His bio of Hall follows.
R. Matteson 2017]
Mary Josephine Hall (Mabs, as she was always known) was born on 12th October 1899 at Cheal Cottage, Wivelsfield, West Sussex. Her earliest memory of singing in her family was her mother, who sang snatches of hundreds of songs and her father, who knew many long songs: the first songs she remembered them singing were Cecilia and Come Write Me Down. Then there was her Uncle Dick, who played mouthorgan and mandolin and Harry, her sister’s husband, who played accordeon. Dick was not really an uncle but a lodger with her sister and Mabs first heard A Sailor from Dover sung by him, and Harry would sing McCaffery. Another singer she remembered was an early boyfriend of hers called Sam Starr who lived on a farm at Ripe, near Lewes, East Sussex. When Mabs visited him he would sing ‘There was a country blade who loved a country maid’ usually in the barn while cutting chaff.Mabs had a remarkable memory but reckoned that she had forgotten more songs than she could remember. She spent her life singing, whether it was at work, at home on her own or even walking down the street. She often remarked that when she was younger if she heard a song once, she could sing it. Mabs died on the 16th November 1992.
Ripest Apples- as recorded by Mabs Hall of Billingshurst, Sussex in 1987.
Ripest apples soon gets rotten,
Hottest love it soon gets cold.
Young man's love is soon forgotten,
Since the girls have been so bold.
Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen.
Twelve, ten, eight, six, four, two, none.
Nineteen, seventeen, fifteen, thirteen.
Eleven, nine, seven, five, three and one.
Though I never went to college, but I heard the poet say:
Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, eight, six, four, two, none.