1950's Children's Book of Poetry and Nursery Rhymes Rock a Bye Baby
I accept covered Nursery Rhymes in an before post but it'south a fascinating surface area and full of historical facts then I'one thousand revisiting the subject and covering unlike rhymes.
Plant nursery rhymes are an important part of our history and cultural tradition hither in the Great britain and it would be a shame if they died out. Each ane has its own melody which comes to heed as shortly every bit you lot come across the words.
One-half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle,
That's the way the money goes,
Popular goes the weasel.
1 theory claims that the rhyme originates in the grimy streets and packed sweatshops of Shoreditch and Spitalfields that provided Londoners with their wearable. A spinner'south weasel is a device that is used for measuring out a length of yarn; the machinery makes a popping audio when the correct length has been reached. Ane imagines the spinner's mind would wander to the more mundane, only to exist brought back to harsh reality when the weasel went pop.
The third poesy suggests an alternative origin, which is based upon the Londoners apply of cockney rhyming slang;
Up and downward the city road,
In and out the Eagle,
That's the fashion the coin goes,
Pop goes the weasel.
To "pop" is a London slang word for pawn. Weasel can be traced to the cockney rhyming slang of "weasel and stoat", or glaze. Even a very poor Victorian Londoner would have had a Sun best coat or suit that could exist pawned when times got hard (Pop goes the weasel), peradventure on cold and damp Monday morning, merely to be retrieved on pay twenty-four hours. The Eagle higher up refers to the Eagle Tavern, a pub located on the corner of Urban center Road and Shepherdess Walk, in the due north London commune of Hackney. Although the usage of the building has changed over the years, the current Hawkeye pub dating from the early 1900's, displays a plaque proclaiming the building's connexion with the nursery rhyme.
Georgie Porgie,
Pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry;
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away.
It is thought that the 'Georgie Porgie' in question was actually the Prince Regent, later on George IV. A very large gentleman, George weighed in at more than 17½ rock with a waist of 50 inches (from eating so many puddings and pies?), and he became a constant source of ridicule in the press of the time.
Despite his large size, George had also established for himself a rather poor reputation for his brawny romps with the ladies that involved several mistresses and a string of illegitimate children.
Little Jack Horner sabbatum in a corner
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said "What a good boy am I"
Trivial Jack Horner lived in the 1530's, the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry 8. Jack Horner was steward to Richard Whiting, the final of the Abbots of Glastonbury. Information technology is said that the Abbot, hoping to placate King Henry, sent His Majesty an enormous Christmas pie containing the deeds of 12 manors. Horner was given the job of taking the 'pie' to London. During the journeying he managed to open the pie and excerpt the deeds of the Manor of Mells in Somerset, presumably the 'plum' referred to in the rhyme. A Thomas Horner did presume buying of Mells, but his descendants and the present owner of the house claim the rhyme is a slander.
Hush a-bye babe in the tree-top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will autumn,
Down will come cradle, babe and all
Hush a-bye Baby, or Stone a Farewell Baby as I knew it, was reputably written by a boy who sailed with the Pilgrim Fathers to America in 1620 and was the first English verse form written on American soil. It is said to take been inspired by the Native American custom of popping babies' cradles in the branches of trees.
Jack and Jill went upward the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack savage down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
The rhyme I knew as a kid contained the lines
He went to bed
to mend his caput
with vinegar and brown newspaper
. . . . simply I recently constitute i which says . .
To former Dame Dob
Who patched his nob
with vinegar and brown newspaper
The small village of Kilmersdon in north Somerset claims to be the habitation of the Jack and Jill rhyme. Local legend recalls how in the late 15th century, a young unmarried couple regularly climbed a nearby hill in order to behave their liaison in individual, away from the prying eyes of the village. Plainly a very close liaison, Jill fell pregnant, just just before the baby was born Jack was killed by a rock that had fallen from their 'special' hill. A few days later, Jill died whilst giving nativity to their beloved child. Their tragic tale unfolds today on a series of inscribed stones that leads along a path to that 'special' colina.
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I have talked nearly children's books in the 50s and 60s before simply this fourth dimension I'thou focusing on the 'classics'. There were fewer books available then so those we had we read and re-read. They are still around but if they are known to children today information technology is more likely to be equally a Disney film or a TV drawing.
This is not an exhaustive list of classics from the fourth dimension, it is a personal choice. I have limited it to the ones nosotros had at dwelling house or borrowed from the library. As nosotros were two girls and a boy, some of my favourite books were 'girls' books' like Heidi. I think less about the ones my blood brother read.
When we were still quite young my mum would read books like Alice in Wonderland and The Water Babies to united states of america. In one case old enough to read fluently I can remember losing myself in books similar Black Beauty, The Children of the New Forest and The Secret Garden.
I take such clear memories of our mum reading this to us before bed. We were in turn fascinated and horrified by it. Some of the images are pretty scary – a baby turning into a pig, for example!
I absolutely adored this book! It is SO sad in parts! I pictured Squire Gordon equally the kindest, nearly handsome man ever.
My sister and I were totally overjoyed by the Borrowers books. This was the outset one then came The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Aloft and The Borrowers Adrift. Years later, as a teacher, I accept read The Borrowers to children in my class and it still has a timeless entreatment.
As a child I was slightly disturbed past some of the weird things in these two books. I was hands scared I think and they had the same effect on me as Alice in Wonderland.
What a lovely story this is! When I was about ten or eleven it was serialised on TV and shown at teatime on Sundays for 8 weeks. The Lord's day dramas were brilliant. Several of the books mentioned hither were shown equally TV serials in the 50s and 60s.
I remember when I was given this as a present my mum explained the Civil War to me in child's terms. When nosotros are young information technology's difficult to picture the span of time and she told me years afterwards that I completely misunderstood the time scale and asked her which side she'd been on!
I'k adequately sure this was a Sunday afternoon serial on Boob tube likewise merely later than the 1960s.
These were a huge family unit favourite! I think there were parts of some of them which the 3 of united states of america knew off by eye.
Oh, how I loved these books! I wanted to BE Heidi! I longed to alive in a house with bedroom in a loft like Heidi's. I read all three – Heidi, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi'due south Children only my truthful love is the original Heidi.
Another book I really enjoyed was What Katy Did. There were two farther books in the serial – What Katy Did Next and What Katy Did at School.
The following four photographs are showing the books I all the same have which were mine in my childhood and teen years. There are two showing spines simply. This is because they have lost their grit jackets. In the 'former' days books had a paper jacket with a picture and writing on and underneath that was a manifestly cover with championship and author on the spine. One of them is entitled Thunderhead and was written past Mary O'Hara. This was mine simply had been my mum's. It had been ane of her favourite books as a youngster and she had kept her copy and gave it to me when I was old enough to relish information technology. Information technology has her proper noun and a date in 1947 written on the fly-leaf.
These concluding few are only a collection of well known books from the time.
These first three images come up under inappropriate/ non-PC. Tin can you imagine letting a child have sweets which are pretend cigarettes at present? I too call up that you could get pipes and pipage tobacco which were sweets.
These ii speak for themselves. The Blackness and White Minstrel Bear witness was huge in the Great britain in the 1950s – and, of course, every family had ane of the ubiquitous gollies! Unimaginable now.
Moving on to unsafe/ dangerous. I call back having a paraffin heater in the bedchamber I shared with my brother and sister. Nosotros at present know that there was a poisonous gas problem (carbon monoxide, in detail) with these just also a serious fire risk. In a cold winter with no fundamental heating a paraffin heater was very welcome and comforting.
I can call back helping a local farmer with his hay making. At the end of the mean solar day we children would be sitting on peak of the pile of hay as the tractor pulled the cart down the lane towards the barn.
I have covered this in a previous postal service but – yeah, nosotros did all have penknives every bit children. Nosotros knew how to apply them safely also!
Cars didn't have seat belts and children could sit in any part of the car – equally in this motion picture. I can think my sister sitting on the bench seat in the front in beteeen my mum and dad on long journeys as she suffered with machine sickness in the back.
Finishing off with inappropriate/ non PC. Simply why did everyone find it so hilarious to read almost an overweight schoolboy who couldn't run and who loved cakes? Information technology seems and so wrong at present notwithstanding Billy Bunter was a part of our childhood in the 1950s.
Children'southward books at present are brilliant and the choice is bewildering. Nosotros had fewer books in my babyhood simply we loved our books and bedtime stories. For small-scale children the picture books were usually (as far as I remember!) near fairies, puppies, children playing with toys and happy family unit scenes.
Even when we were very young our mum used to read to u.s. from the 'harder' books. We loved listening to all the ones now referred to as 'classics' such as Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh and Blackness Beauty. Good stories were read over and again. I knew Black Dazzler inside out!
Nobody would write a book like this present!
We were too read the The H2o Babies and Paddington Deport. Other books we had were the collections of; traditional tales, children's verse, nursery rhymes and fables.
When I was a little older I loved The Children of the New Forest, Heidi (the whole series), The Hush-hush Garden and A Little Princess. Boys' books tended towards adventure and heroes – Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe – whereas girls'books were of a gentler nature! In that location was very much a gender carve up specially in the collections and annuals.
These are some of my own books from my childhood. I remember I badly wanted to be Heidi for a while!
The books which all three of u.s. (two girls and a boy) loved were the Enid Blyton Famous Five and Secret Seven series. Unusually for the time they appealed to both boys and girls. They were then easy to identify with as the kids were our ages and they had such heady adventures.
Every bit children my brother, sis and I loved books. In that location was a lot less choice than at that place is now and we were a long way from any shops so the books we had were read once more and once more. Enid Blyton featured largely in our lives; from the Noddy books when nosotros were very young through to the adventures of the Hugger-mugger Vii and the Famous Five. We even had a record of Noddy tales and songs read and played past Enid Blyton herself. When I was devouring Blyton run a risk stories my sister, who was younger, adored Tales of Light-green Hedges. The books now referred to as 'classics' were also read and loved. Air current in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, The Water Babies, Black Beauty and King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are some I recollect with great affection. My absolute favourites were the Heidi books. I had all of them and I believe I actually wanted to be Heidi!
My Princess cookbook and some of my A few of my childhood books. many recipes from Princess.
One time a calendar week our comics were picked upwardly from the local town when my mum went shopping on a Friday. The arrival of the weekly comic was and then exciting! We had one each. My brother's comic of choice was Hotspur. I took Princess mag and my sis liked Bunty. We read every word. I can retrieve a family called the Days who were a cartoon strip in Princess. I still take a lot of my recipe cuttings and my Princess cookbook.
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In later on years, in the mid-sixties, I was in my early teens and took Jackie mag. Later a few years of enjoying Jackie, Dear magazine came out. I immediately switched from Jackie to Dearest. When I left to get to academy I had a complete gear up from Number 1. My mum and dad threw them out in a firm movement. I was mortified!
I dear books to this day – and I withal cut recipes out of magazines and relieve them!
Source: https://kidsofthe50sand60s.com/tag/books/page/2/