Seventeen Come Sunday- (NC) c.1919 Sutton, Brown A
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore, 1952, Volume 3, version A--their notes follow. The notes are wrong- this is not the song of the Milkmaid-- which is a different song with a similar theme.
R. Matteson 2018]
11. Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?
This song of the milkmaid, still remembered in England —Somerset and Devon (JFSS ii 9-10), Yorkshire (JFSS 11 J70) — is known in various parts of English-speaking America: Newfoundland (BSSN 138-g). New Jersey (JAFL Lii 58-9. a some- what lewd derivative), Virginia (SharpK 11 156-8), Mississippi (JAFL XXXIX 150-1, FSM 277-8). Missouri (OFS I 330). Ohio (BSO 188-90). Nebraska (ABS 228-30). The content of the various texts varies considerably, but they may all be considered forms of the same song. There are two in our collection.
A. 'Seventeen Come Sunday.' (Brown Collection) Sent in by Mrs. Sutton, with the following account of the singer:
"Over beyond Sugar Loaf in Henderson County there lives an old man who sings ballits. He makes whiskey, too, or did, and spent a good deal of time in Atlanta. He has a cabin to which we couldn't go with the car.
"We parked way up on a hillside and climbed down a steep winding path between laurel thickets and found him sitting by the woodpile, strumming a banjo. He said it was 'too party to waste time plowin'.' He also asked us to 'tarry till even.' . . . Not many of his songs were 'fitten to sing before the wimmern,' but he accepted us as kindred spirits and sang them anyway. . . . He sang a number of sea ballads. . . . He also called the young woman he was courting in the hope that she would consent to becoming his fourth wife his 'doney.' Sometimes he made it 'doney gal.'
"The song he liked best of those he sang was 'Seventeen Come Sunday.' When he finished singing this song he observed that 'seventeen is jist about the right age to catch a gal. Ef she's older than that she's apt to be gittin' oneasy and it comes too easy.' We asked him if the 'doney' he had now was over that. He said she was. 'When a feller gits as old and wore out as I am he near 'bout has to take him a gal off'n the cull list,' he remarked philosophically. 'I've had me three young wives, and this un I'm a-courtin' now ain't fur from the whit- leather stage. But, at that, she ort to outlast me.' "
1. 'Where are you going, my pretty maid?
Oh, where are you going, my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'An errand for my mommy.'
2. 'How old are you. my pretty maid?
How old are you, my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'I'm seventeen come Sunday.'
3. 'Where do you live, my pretty maid?
Where do you live, my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'In a cottage with my mommy.'
4. 'Will you marry me. my pretty maid?
Will you marry me. my honey?'
She answered me most modestly,
'If it wasn't for my mommy.'