Date Collected
11-2018
Place item was collected
Delta, Utah
Informant
Marsha Lovell
Point of Discovery/Informant Bio
Marsha Lovell is my mom. She is 54 years old. She grew up on a farm in Sugarville, Utah. She now lives in Delta, Utah and has lived there for the majority of her life. She is the second youngest of eight children. She is the mother of five children and has six grandchildren. She loves and spoils her grandchildren. She works at the Delta Elementary School as a secretary in the main office. Marsha is a quiet woman who never seeks attention. Because she is quiet people are always surprised to find out that she is a prankster. Even though Marsha loves to prank people she is super easy to scare and she always give a big open mouth scream.
Context
Marsha was really excited about the idea of documenting a song her mother sang to her as a child. She insisted that this song was the best one. Marsha grew up with her mother singing little songs. She said her mother, June Losee, had a song for everything. Marsha said they normally sang this song when they played or when they traveled. June heard the song Burglar Bold from her mother Lillie Memmott. At my grandpa’s 89th birthday party my family decided to put on a little program for June and Eugene Losee. As a part of the program my cousins sang and acted out this song. They made a table look like a bed and had my cousin Natasha wear an Old Maid wig, fake teeth and glass eye. While my cousin Andrew played the role of the burglar. It was creative and cute. This song has continued to be passed down in our family for four generations so far.
Text
Burglar Bold (As sung by Lillie Memmott)
A story I'll tell of a burglar bold who started to rob a house.
He opened the window and then crept in, as quiet as a mouse.
He looked around for a place to hide, 'til the folks were all asleep.
And then said he with their money, "I'll take a quiet creep!
Under the bed, the burglar crept, he crept up close to the wall.
He didn't know it was an Old Maid's room, or he wouldn't have had the gall.
At nine o'clock, the Old Maid came in, "I am so tired", she said.
She thought that all was well that night so she didn't look under the bed.
She took out her teeth and her big glass eye and the hair all off her head.
The burglar he had forty fits as he watched from in under the bed.
From under the bed, the burglar crept, he was a total wreck.
The Old Maid wasn't asleep at all and she grabbed him by the neck.
She didn't holler or scream or shout, she was as cool as a clam.
She only said, "The Saints be praised, at last I've got a man".
From under her pillow a gun she drew and to the burglar she said,
"Young man if you don't marry me, I'll blow off the top of your head."
He looked at her teeth and her big glass eye and the hair that lay by her boot,
And then he hollered very loud, "Oh madam, for Pete's sake, shoot!"
Texture
My mom sung the softly and nodded her head to the beat of the song. She smiled as she reminisced. The tune to the song is fairly quick and upbeat. She sang it softly because she is not an attention seeker person and she’s not super confident in her singing ability. Later in the day we went to visit with Marsha’s mother in the care center and Marsha sang Burglar Bold to her to see if she remembered it, and Marsha still sang it just loud enough for my grandma to hear her.
Course
Engl 2210
Instructor
Lynne S. McNeill
Semester and year
Fall 2018
Theme
G5: Love Songs
EAD Number
2.3.1.5
Recommended Citation
Nielson, Breanna, "Burglar Bold Song" (2018). USU Student Folklore Fieldwork. Paper 486.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/student_folklore_all/486