Taunting Rhymes, Street Vendor Calls, Proverbs, & More: Excerpts From J. Mason Brewer's 1968 Book "American Negro Folklore"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents an excerpt from African American folklorist  J. Mason Brewer's 1968 book "American Negro Folklore". This is a complete reprint of a http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-February/046024.html post that was published in 2005 by Wilson Gray (Bapopik).

This post also presents information about J. Mason Brewer. 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to J. Mason Brewer for his folkloric and cultural legacy. Thanks also all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to Wilson Gray (Bapopik) for publishing this excerpt online.

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INFORMATION ABOUT J. MASON BREWER
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Mason_Brewer
"John Mason Brewer (March 24, 1896 – 1975) was an American folklorist, scholar, and writer noted for his work on African-American folklore in Texas. He studied at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and Indiana University, while he taught at Samuel Huston College in Austin, Texas, Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas, Claflin College in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Texas Southern University in Houston, Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, and East Texas State University in Commerce, Texas (now Texas A&M University–Commerce). He published numerous collections of folklore and poetry, most notably The Word on the Brazos (1953), Aunt Dicey Tales (1956), Dog Ghosts and Other Texas Negro Folk Tales (1958), and Worser Days and Better Times (1965).

Brewer was the first African American to be an active member of the Texas Folklore Society, to be a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and to serve on the council of the American Folklore Society. He was also the first African American to deliver a lecture series at the University of Arizona, the University of California, and the University of Colorado, and he broke the color barrier at Austin's Driskill Hotel. He has been compared to Zora Neale Hurston, Joel Chandler Harris, and Alain Locke. He also published a book on African American legislators in Texas during the Reconstruction era up until their disenfranchisement."...

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Excerpt #2
From https://www.humanitiestexas.org/programs/tx-originals/list/j-mason-brewer
"J. Mason Brewer 
March 24, 1896–January 24, 1975

Scholar and folklorist John Mason Brewer was born in Goliad in 1896. Over his fifty-year career, Brewer almost single-handedly preserved the African American folklore of his home state.

Brewer's grandfathers were wagoners who hauled dry goods across Texas. His father worked as a cowboy, traveling to the Indian Territories and Kansas. The stories they shared fostered Brewer's love of folk tales, while his mother, Minnie, a schoolteacher, inspired him to make scholarship his life's work.

When Brewer graduated from Wiley College in 1917, he worked as a teacher and wrote poetry. But he also collected the folk tales he heard at schools and churches, in general stores and barbershops—the places of everyday life for black Texans.

While teaching in Austin in the 1930s, Brewer shared some of his tales with folklorist J. Frank Dobie. Impressed, Dobie arranged for their publication under the title Juneteenth.

Many more books followed, filled with tales that Brewer learned firsthand from Texas's former slaves and their descendants. Recorded in the dialect of their tellers, the stories revolve around preachers and overseers, husbands and wives, reflecting the hardship and humor of the "coming-up times" after slavery.

Brewer became the first African American member of the Texas Folklore Society and the Texas Institute of Letters. His books serve as a timeless record of Texas storytelling, and powerful proof of what he called "folklore as a living force."
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EXCERPT FROM "AMERICAN NEGRO FOLKLORE" edited by J. Mason Brewer 
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This is a complete reprint of this 2005 online post.

How many of the examples given below do you recognize from other old or contemporary songs, rhymes, and cheers? 

Warning: One example that includes profanity and two examples that include what is commonly known as "the n word" are found in this reprint. Those words are given in this pancocojams post with dashes replacing certain letters.]

From http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-February/046024.html
"American Negro Folklore (1968)

Wilson Gray at RCN.COM

Sat Feb 12 23:39:11 UTC 2005

On Feb 12, 2005, at 1:38 AM, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

 

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header

> -----------------------

> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>

> Poster:       Bapopik at AOL.COM

> Subject:      American Negro Folklore (1968)

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------

> --------

> 

> "Hawkins," "made in de shade, sold in de sun," and others of interest

> here.

AMERICAN NEGRO FOLKLORE

> by J. Mason Brewer

J. Mason Brewer

 

Old friend of my family down in Texas. A few other notes are below.

 

-Wilson Gray

 

> Chicago: Quadrangle Books

> 1968

> 

> Pg. 189 (Slave Seculars and Work Songs):

> _I Went to Atlanta_

> 

> I Went to Atlanta

> Never been dere a-fo'

> White folks eat de apple

> Ni--er wait fo' co'

> 

> (Other verses are "White folks sleep on feather bed" and "White folks

> wear de fancy suit" and "White folks sit in Lawd's place"--ed.)

Pg. 304 (Cold Weather Signs): If turkeys roost high in a tree, it's a

> sign of cold weather. You will hear the old folks say, "Look out,

> children. Hawkins is coming."

> 

> Pg. 323 (Creole Proverbs):

> Great to speak, little to do.

> One goes everywhere with fine clothes.

> Ox who comes first always drinks clear water.

> Pg. 324:

> That is not the baptism of a doll. (No laughing matter.)

> When the tree falls the goat climbs it.

> The best swimmer is often drowned.

> When one is very hungry one does not peel the sweet potato.

> His tongue knows no Sunday.

> I keep nothing hidden in the sideboard. (I keep nothing back.)

> Set your type before you go and then read it. (Have on your tongue

> what you are going to say.)

> 

> Pg. 338 ("Dirty Dozens" Rhymes):

> Yo' mama's in de kitchen; yo' papa's in jail;

> Yo' sister's round de corner, hollerin' "Hot stuff for sale."

 

Clearly, the last line above has been bowdlerized.

 

How's yo' mama?

She[my mama]'s a sco'. How's yo' 'ho'?

 

F--ked yo' mama on a red-hot stove

Baby come out sellln' Post* 'n' Globe.* *Local newspapers in St. Louis.

Pg. 339 (Street Cries):

> I sell to the rich,

> I sell to the po';

> I'm gonna sell the lady

> Standin' in that do'.

> 

> I got water with the melon, red to the rind!

> If you don't believe it just pull down your blind.

> You eat the watermelon and preee-serve the rind!

 

> Pg. 340:

> We sell it to the rich, we sell it to the poor,

> We give it to the sweet brownskin, peepin' out the door.

> _Tout chaud, Madame, tout chaud!_

> Git 'em while they're hot. Hot _calas_!

> 

> The Waffle Man is a fine old man.

> He washes his face in a frying-pan.

> He makes his waffles with his hand.

> Everybody loved the waffle man.

> 

> Char-coal! Char-coal!

> My horse is white, my face is black.

> I sell my charcoal, two-bits a sack--

> Char-coal! Char-coal!

 

Pg. 342:

> Porgy walk; Porgy talk,

> Porgy eat wid a knife an' fork;

> Porgy-e-e-e-!

> 

> Vanilla, chocolate, peach cream

> Dat surely freezed by de stream.

> It was made in de shade, an' is sold in de sun.

> If you ain't got a nickel, you can't get none.

> 

> Any rags, any bones, any bottles today?

> The same old rag man comin' this a-way.

> 

> Swimp man, swimp man, raw, raw, raw.

swimp

Shreveport (Louisiana) is often pronounced "Sweepo" in the local BE.

(In Texas, we say "Sreepote."

Fifteen cents a plate, two for a quarter.
> Raw, raw, raw.

Pg. 343 (Jeering and Taunting Rhymes):

> A bushel o' wheat, a bushel o' san',

> Ah'd rather be a ni--er than a po' white man.

> 

> You bowlegged, lazy,

> An' almo' half crazy.

> 

> Pg. 367 (Autograph Album Rhymes):

> You can kiss beneath a grapevine, you can kiss beneath the rose,

> But the best place I know of is to kiss beneath the nose.

> 

> Pg. 368:

> Apples on the table, peaches on the shelf,

> If you don't love nobody, keep it to yourself.

> 

> Up the hickory, an' down the pine;

> Good-looking boys is hard to find.

> 

> Sugar is sweet, an' coffee is strong;

> Write me a letter, and don't be long.

> 

> It takes a rocking chair to rock,

> A rubber ball to roll,

> A tall, skinny papa

> To satisfy my soul.

 

Football cheer used by Sumner High School in St. Louis:

 

It takes a rocking chair to rock

It takes a football to roll

it takes a team like Sumner

To groove my soul

Oh, yes, yes, yes

Oh, yes, yes, yes

 

> 

> Orange is a city, Lemon is a state;

> I wrote you a letter, but I forgot de date.

 

Pg. 369:

> My papa is a butcher,

> My mama cuts de meat.

> Ah'm de little weiner-wish

> Dat runs around destreet.

> 

> If the ocean was milk, and the bottom was cream,

> I'd dive for you like a submarine.

 

> Cream cheese, cream cheese floatin' in the air,

> That bald-headed man ain't got no hair.

 

> Pg. 373 (Ring-Game Songs):

> Ooka dooka soda cracker,

> Does your father chew tobacco?

> Yes, my father chews tobacco.

> Ooka dooka soda cracker.

 

I know only the "Acka backa soda cracker" version

 

Copy cat, copy cat, sittin' on duh fence,

> Trying' tuh make a dollar out o' fifteen cents.

> 

> 

> (NEWSPAPERARCHIVE)

>    Trenton Times  Monday, October 17, 1904 Trenton, New Jersey

> ...of whioti starts off with "ANY RAGS, ANY BONES, ANY bottles today."

> Of course.....Fred Barlow, asked, "Have you ANY rags today''" H

> happened that Just.."

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Videos And Article Excerpts About Bean Pies (An Iconic Pastry From The United States' Nation Of Islam)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post features two article excerpts and comments about the Nation Of Islam tradition of baking and selling "bean pies".

This post also showcases two videos about Nation Of Islam's bean pies. A 1970s sound file by Kool & The Gang of their song " is also showcased in this post.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, etymological purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the producers of the YouTube videos that are included in this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT NATION OF ISLAM'S BEAN PIES
From http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/bean-pie-noi-sweet-potato-imani-muhammad/Content?oid=11544239
Bean pie, my brother?

The Nation of Islam's iconic dessert is still around, if you know where to look.
By Mike Sula, Novemeber 18, 2013
..."Made from cooked, mashed, small navy beans, the bean pie is the iconic food of black Muslims everywhere, but locating one in Chicago in recent years has been a hit-or-miss proposition. That's surprising given the zeal Elijah Muhammad, the Nation's leader for 41 years, had for navy beans. "Eat food that Allah (God) has prescribed for us," he wrote in How to Eat to Live, a two-volume dietary guide for followers of the Nation, whose main points are repeated with the circularity of an industrial-sized mixer: "Even take little things such as beans. Allah (God) says that the little navy bean will make you live, just eat them. He said to me that even milk and bread would make us live. Just eat bread and milk—it is the best food. He said that a diet of navy beans would give us a life span of one hundred and forty years. Yet we cannot live ½ that length of time eating everything that the Christian table has set for us.

In some ways Muhammad's Nation of Islam diet was ahead of its time. He advocated eating unprocessed foods and mostly vegetables (definitely not pork) in moderation. On the other hand, it's an extreme form of moderation. He advised eating just one meal per day, or every other day if you were strong, or—for those who could work up to it—once every 72 hours...

Though in How to Eat to Live he never precisely says why, Muhammad lists most legumes—lima beans, field peas, black-eyed peas, speckled peas, red peas, and brown peas—as among the divinely prohibited. The navy bean was the sole exception....

These rules, he wrote, came directly from the mouth of Wallace Fard Muhammad, who the protege asserted came to Detroit from Mecca to found the Nation of Islam (and then mysteriously disappeared en route to Chicago in 1934). And with him came the recipe for bean pie, according to Lance Shabazz, an archivist and historian of the Nation who says that the theory of the bean pie emerging as a substitute for sweet potato pie might have some validity. Elijah Muhammad doesn't mention bean pie, but he's pretty clear about sweet potatoes: "Sweet potatoes were never good for any human to eat. They are good for hogs, but not for you." (That might have been a tough sell for African-Americans new to the Nation. Sweet potato pie, which originated in the south, was likely the mingling of the cooking of African slaves, who knew yams, and their European masters, who knew pie crust. It is enshrined in the soul food canon.)

In any case, Lance Shabazz says Fard Muhammad bestowed the first recipe for bean pie upon Elijah Muhammad and his wife, Clara, in the 30s in Detroit, though none of this is precisely stated in How to Eat to Live either.

But bean pie is in fact a convincing substitute for sweet potato pie...If nobody tipped you off to the fact that you were eating pie made from mashed navy beans, you could be forgiven for thinking it was sweet potato or pumpkin pie.

Bean pie wasn't the only Nation of Islam dish made with the miraculous navy bean—there was bean soup and bean bread—but it was certainly the most iconic, not just in Chicago but in any other city with a Nation of Islam presence.

In Chicago it used to be that you could reliably pick up a bean pie on the street—along with the latest issue of the Final Call—from a fastidiously dressed male member of the Nation of Islam, who might proffer, "Bean pie, my brother?"...

The late Lana Shabazz, operator of a renowned bakery in New York City, was probably the Nation's most famous bean pie maker. She cooked for Elijah Muhammad and Muhammad Ali—and in 1979 she authored the cookbook Cooking for the Champ. In Chicago there were at least three Nation of Islam bakeries on the south side at one time, most notably the Shabazz Bakery on 71st near Saint Lawrence...

The bakeries where she worked are gone now, but independent bean pie makers still come and go. "Things change really fast in the bean pie world, it seems," says Peter Engler, who has made a study of bean pies over the years. When he first came across one in the early 70s it was at the Hyde Park Co-op. "I saw these stacks of pies. I'm pretty sure these were the Shabazz pies. I bought one and I think I was surprised that it was sweet. It was just like a pumpkin pie. I'd buy one every now and then." Later, in the 90s, Engler bought pies from the now defunct Original Bean Pie Bakery for his coworkers in the molecular immunology lab at the University of Chicago.

In 2008, as Engler was preparing to give a talk about the bean pie at a Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance symposium, he realized how hard it had become to find one. A number of independent bakeries had gone out of business, and Muhammad University's Supreme Bean Pie had just gone back into production after a mysterious absence. With some difficulty he managed to get a half-dozen pies delivered to the conference through a semiofficial bean pie courier.

It still isn't easy to find them....

So where does one get a bean pie these days? Of course, you can always make your own; recipes and YouTube tutorials abound on the Internet."...
-snip-
The video given as Example #1 below includes an interview from a son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad which provides more information about how Lana Shabazz originated the Nation of Islam's bean pie.

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From https://marielacampbellphotography.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/sweet-bean-pie-from-the-nation-of-islam/ "SWEET BEAN PIE !! FROM THE NATION OF ISLAM Posted by Mariela Campbell Photography on August 8, 2012
...."The Bean Pie was ….Born in the Nation of Islam.. a religious black nationalist and social reform movement formed in the 1930’s, and led by Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad wrote a book called “How to Eat to Live” , where he detailed healthy eating guidelines, to improve and prolong life. The Bean Pie is made of Navy Beans, with basic core ingredients, such as sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bakers will add their own touch of flavors such as cloves, ginger and more.

The thought of Bean and Pie put together is hard to digest in ones train of thought, let alone to taste 🙂 Well I am a brave one! I took my first bite nine years ago , with the thought in mind on how quickly I will be spitting this out ….. & of course to my surprise I was overwhelmed by the sweet smooth taste. I learnt that it can be eaten warm, cold or hot… I prefer nice and chilled 🙂

Now the downside to the bean Pie is that it is NOT mass produced, and you really need to find a reliable producer/baker.Because its not cool when we are needing that bean Pie Fix and not being able to find it anywhere …. our supplier is a good 35 mins away, so we make that trip worthwhile, to find that sometimes they are closed grrrrr frustrating it is!!..lol …the other option is to look out for community followers who sell bean pies for fundraising….they are normally dressed in suits 🙂 . I have made my own and definitely need practice 🙂."
-snip-
All of these ellipses (...) except for the first one and the last one were given in that article.

That article continues with that writer's recipe for bean pies. I haven't tried that recipe (or any other recipe for bean pies), but a number of commenters to this article tried that recipe and wrote that their pies were quite good.

I have tasted bean pies (in Newark, New Jersey and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And agree with the author and the commenters that bean pies are Delicious. They have a taste all their own, but remind me of sweet potato pies (and sweet potato pies taste are almost like pumpkin pies). Perhaps because I'm African American, I'm much more familiar with sweet potato pies than pumpkin pies. I didn't taste pumpkin pies until I attended a predominately White college in East Orange, New Jersey (near Newark). Of these types of pies, my preference is sweet potato pies, closely followed by bean pies, with pumpkin pies coming a far distance third.
-snip-
Here are two comments from this featured article:
Anonymous says:
October 19, 2014 at 10:03 am
"This is not the “Original Bean Pie Recipe “ of the Nation of Islam. The sugar and flour are wrong, plus there are four “key” flavors that goes into the pie."...
-snip-
This comment includes an email to use if readers want the "original" Nation Of Islam recipe.

**
jazzjune10 says:
August 15, 2015 at 4:32 pm
"I use this recipe, but I mix my ingredients in a food processor. I feel that this method better blends the ingredients and gives the filling a really smooth consistency. So far, every pie has been a winner. Also, make sure to use evaporated milk. Half of the water is removed from evaporated milk, which may contribute to the pie’s creamy/custard quality."

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: "Bean Pie My Brotha?"



Hassanah Thomas, Uploaded on Oct 27, 2009

Bean Pie is an authentic American Muslim experience! Hailing from the Blackamerican Muslim community, Bean Pie has taken on iconic proportions. It has been the butt of many jokes, and dare we say, may even have been a catalyst for the proliferation of the Islamic faith, as we have come to learn while filming this documentary that many connoisseurs of this delectable confection have been introduced to Islam and have developed deep affections toward the Muslim community.

So please, watch and learn and see if you don't get a hankering for some Bean Pie!
-snip-
"Bean pie my brother" (or "my sister") is the usual way that on the street Nation Of Islam vendors try to interest people walking or in cars to buy a bean pie. These same suit wearing, bow tied men would also be hawking the Nation Of Islam's newspaper "The Final Call".

The street vendor call beginning at .05 of this video:
"Bean pies. Costumed beans... The best in the city. Make you say "Ooh wah diddie. Come on get it. Let's be wit it."
-snip-
At 3:16 in this video that vendor is identified as Bro. Michael Williams from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania> That sub-topic for that segment is whether the beans in bean pies cause those eating them to fart. Bro Williams enjoys his play on words when he says that some people eat bean pie all of the time and they have a "funky good time".

Interview from 1:17 to 2:06 with Mr. Jabir Muhammad [on screen caption: "Son of Elijah Muhammad, Made the bean pie a household name."]
This segment begins with Mr. Muhammad correcting the information that a man shared on camera that bean pies came from the Middle East.

Jabir Muhammad: "No that's not true. This pie was originated up in New York City by a sister named Lana Shabazz as far as I know that's the history goes back. She was also the cook for Muhammad Ali, the fighter and the trainer. She was his main cook. Next I heard it got to my sister Ethel Sharif Muhammad.

I started making the bean pie and was putting it on the shelves of different grocery stores that would accept it. But first I had to introduce the bean pie to the public where they would accept the taste. So I didn't tell them it was bean pie. I named it after the bakery in which I was managing. It was "South Park Bakery" so I called it "South Park Special".

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Example #2: The Bean Pie: An American Muslim Icon



3TU, Uploaded on Dec 10, 2011

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ADDENDUM: BOW TIES BEAN PIES WHITING H&G



Ronald Bell, Published on Mar 16, 2015

KOOL BABY BROTHA BAND
-snip-
"Whiting H&G" refers to a type of fish. I'm not sure what the H&G stand for.

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Three Examples Of African American Street Vendor Calls

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents three examples of African American street vendor calls. One of these examples (with an introductory comment) is included in the Notes section of Thomas W. Talley's now classic 1922 collection of Negro Folk Rhymes. The other two examples (with rather lengthy excerpted comments) are from Clyde "Kingfish" Smith and are excerpted from the 1981 published book Harlem Photographs 1932-1940 by Aaron Siskind. That book section showcases two additional street calls that Clyde "Kingfish" Smith recalled creating and singing.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the creators and collectors of these vendor calls.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT
I'm using the term "African American" in this post even though that term wasn't used as a referent for that population in the early 20th century. Also, I'm using the term "street vendor call" because it seems to be most often used for this rhyming composition that was used by people selling products in neighborhoods. However, it should be noted that the example that Thomas W. Talley gives is of a vendor selling lemonade at a "backwoods" Negro picnic."Backwoods" here means "country"/"rural" and probably with the added distinction of southern rural). Talley refers to that "call" as a "cry" (meaning it was shouted). Thomas W. Talley wrote that some of the material in his book was quite old. Judging from that comment and the dialectic English that is used, that "Lemonade Call" may be much older than the early 20th century.

Clyde "Kingfish" Smith referred to himself and other "vendors" as "peddlers" and he also referred to those calls as "cries".

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EXAMPLE #1
From Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Otherwise by Thomas W. Talley (Study section; originally published in 1922, pp. 243, 244)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm
[The Project Gutenberg EBook edition]
"Possibly the thing which will impress the reader most in reading Negro Folk Rhymes is their good-natured drollery and sparkling nonsense. I believe this is very important. Many have recounted in our hearing, the descriptions of "backwoods" Negro [Pg 244] picnics. I have witnessed some of them where the good-natured vender of lemonade and cakes cried out:
"Here's yō' cōl' ice lemonade,
It's made in de shade,
It's stirred wid a spade.
Come buy my cōl' ice lemonade.
It's made in de shade
An' sōl' in de sun.
Ef you hain't got no money,
You cain't git none.
One glass fer a nickel,
An' two fer a dime,
Ef you hain't got de chink,
You cain't git mine.
Come right dis way,
Fer it shō' will pay
To git candy fer de ladies
An' cakes fer de babies."
-snip-
My explanations of some of the terms used in this example:
"de" = the
"wid" = with
"sol"= sold
"fer" = for
"Ef you hain't got de chink" = If you don't have money [The word "chink" probably comes from the sound that coin money makes when it hits against other coins or something else.]
"dis" = this
'sho" = sure

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EXAMPLES #2 and #3
From Harlem Photographs 1932-1940 by Aaron Siskind; recollections by Clyde "Kingfish" Smith [pp 11-17]
"I started singing when I started peddling; that was in 1932. "Heigho fish man, bring down your dish pan", that's what started it. "Fish ain't but five cents a pound." It was hard times then - the depression and people can hardly believe fish is five cents a pound so they started buying. There were quite a few peddlers and somebody has to have something extra to attract attention. So when I came around, started making a rhyme, it was a hit right away. One of the first things I learned about peddling was to be any success at all, you had to have an original cry. I known several peddlers that started out and they hollered Old Fish Man, but it doesn't work.

I've gone block where several fish men have gone alreeady and sold fish like nobody had been there. When I sing, a certain amount of people will be standing around, looking and listening, and that attracts more people. Whenever people see a crowd they think it's a bargain so they want to get in on it. Wheen I sing it will be so loud that people come to the windowss and look out. They come down with their bedroom shoes on, with bathrobes, and some have pans or newspapers to put the fish in.

When I first come to a block nobody pays any attention. Then I start singing, get them to laughing and looking and soon they start buying. A lot of them just hang around to hear the song. O alway try to give the best fish I can for the money and that makes repeated customers. A lot of people wait for my individual cry. The average day I cover about eight blocks and spend about an hour in each block, sometimes longer.

When I have crabs the kids like to see the crabs jump and bite, so they stand around in big crowds. Sometimes, when sing, the kids be dancing the Lindy Hop and Trucking. Women buy most of the fish. I find Home Relief and WPA people the best customers. They buy more. They have to budget more than the average family.

In white and Jewish neighborhoods I feature the words but in the colored neighborhood I feature the tune. In thee Jewish neighborhood they appreciate the rhyming and the words more, while in the colored neighborhood, they apprciate the swinging and the tune, as well as the words. I put in a sort of jumping rhythm for the colored folks. That swing music comes right from old colored folks spirituals.

I say whatever comes to my mind if I think it will be good. The main idea is wheen I got something I want to put over I just find something to rhyme with it. And the main requirement for that is mood. You gotta be in the mood. You got ot put yourself in it. You'v got to feel it. It's got to be more an expression than a routine. Of course sometimes a drink of King Kong helps.

A song like this I'd just look on the wagon and rhyme up something to match with it. When I sang this song, this morning, I was just thinking of something to rhyme then.

I got vegetables today,
So don't go away.
Stick around
And you'll hear me say,
Buy them by the pound,
Put em in a sack
Hurry up and get 'em
Cause I'm not coming back.
I got apples, onions, and collard greens.
I got the best string beans
That I ever seen
I got oranges, tomatoes, nice southern
sweet potatoes,
I got yellow yams
From Birmingham.
And if you want some,
Here I come
And if you don't want none
I don't give a
Yam, yam, yam
I got green greens
From New Orleans.
I got the greenest greens
I ever seen,
And I sure seen
A whole lot of greens
I got cauliflower
And mustard greens.
The best cauliflower
I ever seen.
So buy some,
Try some,
Take 'em home and fry some.


This was my first original fish song. I put words from this into some of the others. This was the first fish song in my own tune. So after the people begin to get too familiar with the tune, I grasped the idea of changing my tune to get the tune of the most popular song hit of that time.

Yo, ho, ho fish man!
Bring down your dish pan!
Fish ain't but five cents a pound.
So come on down,
And gather around.
I got the best fish
That's in this town.
I got porgies,
Crockers too.
I ain't got but a few,
So you know what to do.
Come on down,
And gather round,
Cause my fish ain't
But five cents a pound.
I've got 'em small;
I got 'em long and I got 'em tall,
I got 'em fried,
I got 'em broiled,
And I can't go home 'till I sell 'em all!
So yo, ho, ho, fish man!
Bring down your dish pan!
Cause fish ain't but five cents a pound.

I can't go home 'till all my fish is gone.
Stormy weather.
I can't keep my fish together,
Sellin' em all the time.
If you don't buy 'em
Old rag man will get me.
If you do buy'em
You folks'll kinda let me
Walk in the sun once more.
I don't see why
You folks don't come and buy
Stormy weather,
Come,
Let's get together,
Sellin 'em all the time.

I wouldn't sing this one in a Jewish neighborhood. They don't know the tune and they wouldn't appreciate that song. Only in a colored neighborhood.
-snip-
In the what I refer to as the "Fruit and vegetable Call", lines "And if you don't want none/I don't give a Yam, yam, yam" is an example of profanity avoidance by saying a word that rhyme with that "bad word". This and other clever profanity avoidance techniques appear to have been quite popular in the early 20th century. Those who are familiar with the "Miss Suzy Had A Steamboat" children's rhyme may recognize other profanity avoidance techniques that are found in that rhyme.

I separated this "Fish Call" into two parts with the second part that which has the "stormy weather" phrases. That part may just happen to begin at the top of the second column of the page so it's just my guess that this is a second portion of that call which may have been added later, and may also have had a different tune and tempo.

Clyde "Kingfish" Smith refers to the song "Stormy Weather" as sung by Billie Holliday.

The "walk in the sun" line refers back to that stormy weather motif. The sung will be shining if people buy his fish, thus averting poverty (which is represented by the idea of an old rag man, i.e. an old man dressed in rags).

For the folkloric record, the other two calls that Clyde "Kingfish" Smith recalled for this book were about selling ice and about selling crabs.

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