Memories

The other day I was thinking about Mother's Day and my Mom. I was thinking of the different things she would do with us when we were young and one of my favorite things she would do was when we'd take walks after supper.

On these walks there were usually two or three of us tagging along with her. I can only imagine after dealing with all seven of us kids all day, she looked forward to some "ALMOST alone" time after supper! The reason we liked to walk with her was because she would recite poetry for us with just a bit of prompting. If Mom was tired from the day's routine, we'd turn left at the first street and just walk around our block. Mom would recite Robert Louis Stephenson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many other poets that I can't remember. "The Lamplighter", "I Have a Little Shadow", "Taffy", and many other short poems were recited and learned as we walked around our block. To this day, I can still recite these poems with few mistakes!

Walking around our block was OK with us, but what we really liked was when she didn't turn onto the first street on the left; but would rather take the first street on the right! We knew if she turned right on the first street, Mom was going to recite a long poem for us, so we always hoped she wouldn't take the first left!

When Mom turned right, we would then hear "Little Orphan Annie", "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", "School Days", "Grandpa's Whiskers" plus all the other shorter poems until we climbed the hill back towards home.

One of my favorites was called "Taffy" I guess. That's what we always called it and Mom knew what we were talking about. The poem goes like this:

Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief.
Taffy came to my house and stole a leg of beef.
I went to Taffy's house. Taffy was in bed.
I picked up the leg of beef and hit him in the head.

Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief.
Taffy came to my house and stole a leg of beef.
I went to Taffy's house. Taffy wasn't home.
Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow bone.

I went to Taffy's house. Taffy was not in.
Taffy came to my house and stole a rolling pin.
I went to Taffy's house. Taffy was in bed.
I took up a poker and flung it at his head.

Taffy was a Welshman. Taffy was a thief.
Taffy came to my house and stole a leg of beef.
Iwent to Taffy's house. Taffy was not in.
I jumped upon his Sunday hat and poked it with a pin.

Taffy was a Welshman. Taffy was a sham.
Taffy came to my house and stole a leg of lamb.
I went to Taffy's house. Taffy was away.
I stuffed his socks with sawdust and filled his shoes with clay.

Taffy was a Welshman. Taffy was a cheat.
Taffy was came to my house and stole a piece of meat.
I went to Taffy's house. Taffy was not there.
I hung his coat and trousers to roast upon the peat.