Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024
Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Monday, April 13, 2015

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt - Saturday, April 11, 2015

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt...Where did that come from?

With "J" as our letter in the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge, this is what popped into my head. Once there, I could not get rid of it. So I decided to write about it.

For those of you who grew up in a vacuum, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt is a fictional character in a traditional children's song, typically sung at a summer camp or scout camp. This is one of many songs we sang around a campfire in the evening, at Scout meetings (I was a Boy Scout leader and a Campfire Girls leader), or hiking on trails.

Other songs included in our camp repertoire included:
  1. "Ears Hung Low," 
  2. "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (sung as a round), 
  3. "Dem Bones," 
  4. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," 
  5. "On Top of Spaghetti," 
  6. "This Land is Your Land," 
  7. "If You're Happy and You Know It," 
  8. "Head and Shoulders (Knees and Toes)," 
  9. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (alternate sitting and standing every time you come to a word that starts with the letter "b",
  10. "Happy Wanderer,"
  11. "Vive L'Amour,"
  12. "We're Here Because We're Here,"
  13. "Hokey Pokey,"
  14. "Grand Old Duke of York,"
  15. "Green Grass Grew All Around,"
  16. "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain,"
  17. "B-I-N-G-O'"
  18. "Ants Go Marching Song,"
  19. "Goin' on a Lion Hunt,"
  20. "My Boy Scout Hat,"
  21. "There's a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza,"
  22. "What Did Delaware Boys?"
  23. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again,"
  24. "Ravioli" (sung to Alouette),
  25. "Shaving Cream,"
  26. "Taps,"
  27. "Kum Ba Yah" (usually the last song as the campfire embers died down) 
As a camper, Boy Scout leader, then later Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster trainer, I sang these songs many times in my life. They were great fun and I remember most of them to this day.

Do any of them ring a bell with you? What other songs did you sing in camp or in Scouts?

3 comments:

  1. Ha! I was in girl scouts and remember singing some of those songs, but I don't remember the words any more. You've got a pretty darn good memory if you can still come up with the words!

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  2. Ahhhh, such memories of camp! Every now and then I burst into a camp song. A favorite was "Fried Ham."

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  3. I remember a song challenge we did at Camp Fire Girls Day Camp. There were two teams. You took the first two lines (more or less) of a nursery rhyme, and then added "and threw them out the window, the window, the second story window. High, low, low high, threw them out the window." At that point, it was the other teams turn. And the challenge went on until one of the teams couldn't come up with an unused rhyme. So it would go something like:

    Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, and threw it out the window, the window, the second story window. High, low, low, high, threw it out the window.

    Old King Cole was a merry old soul, a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl, and he threw them out the window......

    When you get 100 girls together, this challenge can go on and on. Thanks for the memories!

    ReplyDelete

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