My Old Ohio Home - general

Lyrics to a version of The Rambling Boy

2019-08-24T00:00:00-04:00

Apropos of nothing else so far on this website I am posting the lyrics to a version of "The Rambling Boy" as done by lonesomepaul on YouTube.

This is not your grandfather's Ramblin' Boy. And the lyrics are not from the versions by Tom Paxton or Joan Baez. Listening to Tom Paxton after this is like listening to Pat Boone sing "Blueberry Hill." Nice, but just nice.

The singer says that is a version of a song done by Pete Steele in the 1930's. I couldn't make out all the words and most of the other versions have completely different lyrics. I got the part about 'the gallows tree' from another old version by The Clayton McMichen String Band with Riley Puckett, also at YouTube.

An Irish version of the same song and story is Newry Highwayman, by Sean Cannon of the Dubliners.

If anyone can pick out the rest of the words, or can correct any of mine, please let me know and I will edit this post to reflect the changes.

"The Rambling Boy"

Oh I never guessed when I was young
where my life would take me, what I'd become
that I would be a rambling ..
and ... on a dark highway

At seventeen I married me a wife
loved her as I loved my life
she treated me unkind all night and day
she drove me to rob on a dark highway

Oh that pretty little miss .... o
there's some gals sometimes....
prettiest face and the sweetest [hands?]
oh bless the ground?/grass? on which she stands

oh i never robbed those with none to spare
I only robbed the rich I do declare
I robbed them on the street at night
and I'd bring money home to my heart's delight

but now I am condemned to die
got no one to love or cry
but all their tears will not help me
as I lay awaiting for the gallows tree

my mother sits and weeps and moans
sister says she'd let them know
true love cries in deep despair
with her dark brown eyes and pretty curly hair

oh pretty little girl I served you well
I loved you more than life itself
I .... that day will come
and you will find we'll live as one

come young and old and gather around
see me laid in this old ground
I'm not shamed or scared to die
since I know I'll see you bye and bye

Credits

Picture of banjo from Wikipedia:File:BluegrassBanjo.jpg.

The lyrics are probably in the public domain. Just because I wrote them down doesn't make them mine. My introduction is copyright by me.

Manufacturer of Shoddy Goods

2019-08-24T00:00:00-04:00

a shoddy picker

How would you feel if your ancestor was described as a 'manufacturer of shoddy goods'?

I came across this discription in a local history book:

"Around 1858 the [manufacturing] privilege at Branch Village [Smithfield, Rhode Island] was purchased by the Blackstone Manufacturing Company, who manufactured shoddy goods and leased the scythe works for several years."(footnote)The History of North Smithfield by Walter Nebiker (Somersworth, NH: New England History Press, 1976), page 92.

If that company was owned by your ancestor, could you defend him? Well yes, if you were familiar with the original definition of "shoddy." According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, it means "a reclaimed wool from materials that are not felted," and "a fabric often of inferior quality manufactured wholly or partly from reclaimed wool."

During the U.S. Civil War the term came to describe the inferior uniforms and blankets supplied to the Union Army. And in October of 1863 the New York Herald complained that "The world has seen its iron age, its golden age, and its brazen age. This is the age of shoddy." (footnote)Quoted in an article about Col. George L Beal at The Maine State Archives. It was downhill from there, so to speak, for the word "shoddy" until it arrived at the current meaning of poor quality and second-rate.

But if your ancestor lived in the mid-1800's and manufactured "shoddy goods" you can be proud of him. After all 100% of his product came from recycled material. How many people can say that?

For an explanation of the process of making shoddy wool, which was first developed in Britain, see the article "What is Shoddy?" at HistoryHouse.co.uk.

Credits

The image of a shoddy picker comes from the Collection of Maggie Land Blanck.

Youtube–Long time, no see

2019-08-14T00:00:00-04:00

A few days ago I was listening to Youtube for the first time in a while. Right off, I noticed that the required length of the ads has increased: 6 seconds, not 5. My breaking point will probably be about 7 seconds. Then try to make Pandora or Spotify play what I want them to.

But anyway, what I learned was that "That's the Way Love Goes" was written and sung by Lefty Frizzell. I'd heard Merle Haggard's version of it so many times, I just thought the song was his. I've been gradually getting reacquainted with Lefty Frizzell. Something I do at work every Friday starts me singing "Saginaw, Michigan," so I broke down one week and looked him up on Youtube. I had forgotten "Always Late"–what a great song. And, just as it wasn't Merle, it wasn't Willie Nelson who did "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time." This week I found "Mom and Dad's Waltz" which is really sweet.

One thing led to another, a few suggested songs that I actually wanted to hear maybe, and I had worked back to The Carter Family. I never knew they did a version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" I knew the song predated Elvis Presley, but I didn't know it was by that many years. And their version (1936) wasn't the first, it was written in 1926. Next time I'll look for the original.

Complain about Youtube and the ads for stuff you'll never be interested in, but where else are you going to find, easily, in one place, all these songs? Someday soon I'm going to work Roscoe Holcomb's "Black Eyed Susie" into an article. Stay tuned.

Credits

Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Kilmore Quay Post Office

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

Kilmore Quay Post Office

A while ago my cousin sent me a number of photographs of our family, and I have posted them in the Ohio photographs section of this site. However there were a few in the mix that are "leftovers." Neither of us have a clue how or why they became part of the family collection.

This picture of Kilmore Quay Post Office is one of them. Our family was not from County Wexford. It's possible that someone on my cousin's side was from County Wexford and this is a photograph of a long lost relative. It's just as likely that my aunt, or someone else along the way, thought this was a nice picture and decided to keep it.