> Mother may I go out to swim,
> Yes my darling daughter,
> Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
> But don't go near the water.
You left out the best part!
I am too young and I ain't fit To diddle a growed-up gentleman yet. You're big enough, and built just right, I'd like to diddle you every night.
YES, MY DARLING DAUGHTER (Jack Lawrence)
I've gotta be good or momma will scold me (Yes, yes, yes!) I asked her and this is what she told me: (Yes, yes, yes!)
Mother, may I go out dancing? Yes, my darling daughter! Mother, may I try romancing? Yes, my darling daughter!
What if there's a moon, Momma darling, and it's shining on the water? Mother, must I keep on dancing? Yes, my darling daughter!
What if he'll propose, Momma darling, when the night is growing shorter? Mother, what should be my answer? "Yes," my darling daughter!
As recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra on November 15th 1940 with Marion Hutton. Words and music by Jack Lawrence. (From the revue "Crazy With The Heat")
MOTHER, MAY I GO OUT TO SWIM (BATHING SONG)^^^ (Lester Keith)
A sweet little peach from Manhattan Beach Was strolling upon the sand, And met a young sport from jolly Newport Who thought she was perfectly grand She murmured to him, "I'd go take a swim, But I am engaged to be wed, Though it's very warm, it's very bad form." "Yours looks good to me," he said She answered right away, "To Ma I used to say"
cho: Mother may I go out to swim,
Yes my darling daughter,
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
But don't go near the water.
You may look cute in your bathing suit,
But act just as you oughter,
Now and then you can flirt with the men,
But don't go near the water.
This dapper young swell then said to the belle, "Please come out and dine with me, It's quite impolite, but come out tonight, I love you and you must agree," She answered in haste, "It's very bad taste To dine with a stranger I'm told:" But her taste was fine for champagne and wine Cost him twenty dollars cold, And afterwards he thought, Of what her mother taught
Sung by Julian Eltinge of Cohan & Harris' "Honey Boy" Minstrels
Copyright 1908. [With music. I suspect the songwriters Keith Lester, Lester W. Keiffer, Lester Keith, and Lester W. Keith are the same person, but who was he?. For the chorus see the Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, among other places.
MOTHER, MAY I GO OUT TO SWIM
Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter, Hang your clothes on a hick'ry limb, But don't go near the water.
She hung her clothes on a hickory limb, And Johnny hung his up too, So him and her they romped and played Like young folks always do.
I am too young and I ain't fit To diddle a growed-up gentleman yet. You're big enough, and built just right, I'd like to diddle you every night.
Sung as above by a lady in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, January 7, 1952. She heard it about 1900, in Garland County, Arkansas. Only the first stanza is reported in polite sources, as by F. W. Baugh, Marius Barbeau, and the Wintembergs, in their important collection, "Canadian Folklore from Ontario," in Journal of American Folklore (1918) vol. XXXI: pp. 1-179, at pp. 55, and 115-16. See a similar opening stanza in Randolph's Ozark Folksongs (1950) vol. IV: p. 400, No. 873; ed. Cohen (1982) pp. 388-89, as "The Alphabet Song," to which it forms the introduction; the singer, Mrs. May Kennedy McCord writing (1939): "My father learned. . . this song, more than ninety years ago. There were many verses, some not at all suitable for children to sing." The spelled-out alphabet served as the chorus. Compare the same isolated opening "jingle" in Brown, North Carolina Folklore (1952) vol. III: p. 376. This is international: the Opies, No. 360, cite a personal British version of (again) the first stanza only, as a nursery rhyme in Walter de la Mare's last book, The Scarecrow (1945), with the variant line 3: "Fold your clothes up neat and trim." To this, the young lady being addressed objects: "The rhyme I know,' said Letitia, `is, Hang your clothes on a hickory limb.'" Clearly, that is the one De la Mare (born in Kent in 1873) knew too, in the 1870s or 80s.
Source: Roll Me In Your Arms: "Unprintable" Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, Volume 1 (Vance Randolph, 1992) -- Michael Pugliese