Sierra MackelprangFollow

Date Collected

Fall 11-20-2018

Place item was collected

Logan, Utah

Informant

Myself

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

I grew up in Boise, Idaho. I am currently twenty seven years of age, and I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am a Psychology major with a minor in statistics. I enjoy movies, music and folklore and nerd culture. When I was younger, I didn’t really associate with many girl’s my age, or girls in general other than my mom. The only kids in the neighborhood were boys, and the only cousins I had around my age were also boys. So I was very much a tomboy. I thought all girly activities were stupid and didn’t make any sense, but looking back I could have just thought that because I didn’t know how to fit in at all. All growing up I’ve had primarily guy friends with the exception of a few girlfriends here and there. When I did have friends that were girl’s, I often played the boy characters in most of our made up games because they were strong and could go on cool adventures, and weren’t always needing to be saved. I still gravitate towards the more ‘boy associated’ activities, with the exception of sports, to this day. I associate as female with male tendencies, and am very, very straight. I also have no idea why I felt the need to share this information with his particular story at all.

Context

: I grew up in a mostly republican city in a suburban neighborhood. I remember people, being your typical republican suburban 90’s people, and kids enjoyed more of the simpler things back then, like playing at the park, climbing trees and playing in the mud. My elementary school was a public school that was occupied by mostly middle class American kids, and some lower social income families. When I was younger, I didn’t really associate with many girl’s my age, or girls in general other than my mom. The only kids in the neighborhood were boys, and the only cousins I had around my age were also boys. So I was very much a tomboy. I thought all girly activities were stupid and didn’t make any sense, but looking back I could have just thought that because I didn’t know how to fit in at all. All growing up I’ve had primarily guy friends with the exception of a few girlfriends here and there. When I did have friends that were girl’s I often played the boy characters in most of our made up games because they were strong and could go on cool adventures, and weren’t always needing to be saved. I was a tomboy and mostly spent time with boys in my classes, and for some reason I distinctly remember whenever I spent time with the girls, that hand clapping games with little rhyming ditties were the ‘in-thing’. When I learned this one, I remember it was in the morning when we were waiting for the bell to ring and for school to start. We were standing in line and past them time with this song.

Text

Miss Susie had a steamboat,

The steamboat had a bell, DING DING!

Miss Susie went to heaven,

The steam boat went to-

HELLo operator please give me number nine,

And if you disconnect me,

I’ll chop of your-

BEHIND the ‘fridgerator,

There lay a piece of glass,

Miss Susie sat upon it,

And cut her little-

ASK me no more questions’

Tell me no more lies,

The boys are in the bathroom,

Zipping up their-

FLIES are in the meadow,

The bees are in the park,

Miss Susie and her boyfriend are kissing in the,

D-A-R-K

D-A-R-K

DARK! DARK! DARK!

Darker than the ocean,

Darker than the sea!

Darker than the underwear my mother puts on me!

I know I know my ma!

I know I know my Pa!

I know I know my sister with the FORTY ACRE BRA!

My mother is Godzilla,

My Father is King-Kong!

My brother is the stupid one who taught me this DUMB SONG!

Texture

Whenever we sang this song it always felt like we were being extremely defiant and it was like we had absolutely no fear of getting in trouble. We would shout it at the top of our lungs and we would often times look for opportunities to sing it in front of grown-ups. We were untouchable and we knew it. It only sounded like we were saying bad words and being naughty and since we weren’t actually doing it they couldn’t do anything. We taught everybody and anybody who would learn it. It almost felt like we were passing around a secret weapon to other kids. I know for a fact I learned this song from a girl in my class who was very, very popular. She was tall, blonde, good at basketball, and all the other boys in the class took turns having a crush on her and asking her out and stuff. I distinctly remember thinking that she looked like Ducky from the animated movie, Land Before Time. Specifically she had Ducky’s lips, which were very big and ‘pouty’ looking.

Course

ENGL/HIST/ANTHRO 2210

Instructor

Lynne S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2018

Theme

G5: Child and Young Adult Songs

EAD Number

1.6.55

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