i remember
skip-to-my-lou
kukla, fran and ollie
days of the week underpants
and uncle howie’s store
the wisconsin dells’ wooden indian
my lone ranger lunch box
howdy doody’s freckles
miss tews’ ballet school
and kindergarten with junie z
any one out there
remember me?
A quadrille (44 words) written for dVerse using the word “skip.” Skip to My Lou is a popular children’s song – begun in 1826 as a lyrical game in Abraham Lincoln’s youth in southern Indiana and Kentucky, it became a partner-stealing dance in the 1840s. In my childhood, we literally skipped along the sidewalk singing this song. Photos: The Lone Ranger; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; and Howdy Doody – tv shows popular in the 1950s. Me playing dress-up with Junie Z, on a Wisconsin Dells vacation, and ready for a Miss Tews dancing recital.
lillian the home poet 
I remember skip to my lou, and Howdy Doody, too! 🙂
Love this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, as I said to Bjorn, ‘skip to my lou” was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the prompt — and sometimes when the noodle suggests a doodle, ya just go with it! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed 🙂
LikeLike
This is stellar.. so cute and nice… what a great way to tell your past than with a children’s song.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked it. “Skip to my Lou” was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the prompt — so I went with it! 🙂
LikeLike
Flies in the buttermilk, shoo fly, shoo…..
I can’t believe I still remember all the words.
Was kukla fran and Ollie strictly Chicago?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think Kukla Fran and Ollie was broader than just the Chicago area. We did have Romper Room, Uncle Johnnie Coons at lunchtime, and Ding Dong School with Miss Frances — my all time favorite as a little girl! 🙂 I still have a letter from Miss Karen at Romper Room — evidently I sent in a drawing to share with children in the hospital and she sent me a form letter thank you, with a real signature on it 🙂
LikeLike
Funny I am 53 but I am jealous you got that picture 🙂 I remember Romper room so clearly but I know I was very small.
Also Bozo’s circus
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes — Bozo with the wild read hair. I didn’t care for that one much — but my husband actually got to go see it and be in the audience! 🙂 Oh those memories…
LikeLike
This is delightful! Such a wonderful peek into your childhood.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you enjoyed. I had fun with it! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love poems like this… that look into the past. Memory poems. Great job. Really caught a glimpse of you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So glad you enjoyed. Yep — that’s me — in that lovely can can outfit for a dance recital and holding what was called a Tiny Tears doll in my dress-up clothes! Ah….growing up in the 50s! 🙂
LikeLike
Now I’m chuckling because I come to find you’ve sorted your own beans today and kept in just the right ones. The days-of-the-week underpants were something I’d forgotten all about. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you enjoyed. Ah yes — somehow it never seemed I had an entire set????
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh how I enjoyed this! Howdy Doodie…to this day many times instead of saying hello or hi, I’ll say, Howdy doody to you! And Kukla Fran and Ollie…..and did you know, they sell adult sized day of the week panties? Yeppers they do. This was such much fun to read and remember. Here down south, in Cherokee NC was a wooden Indian outside of the one of the reservation stores. What innocent times those were.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah innocent times indeed. I think those were called Cigar Indians? My guess is one might be lucky to find one in an antique store now. Really???? Adult sized days of the week underpants??? I always wondered why they didn’t have days of the week jockey shorts for boys??? 🙂
LikeLike
Not too familiar with skip to the Lou
in memory direct but after discussing
Red Skelton.. a little earlier today
i kNoW he skipped
as Freddy
the Free Loader
wanderer for sure..
but i’m not sure
if he had anything
to do with Lou at all..:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah Katie….so nice to see you here today! 🙂 Haven’t seen you in a while and I do enjoy chatting with you. Ah yes….I remember watching Red Skelton on television with my parents. Freddie the Free Loader was one of his characters he played. I swear he had a rubber face 🙂
Glad you enjoyed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Lillian.. i may have mentioned it before..
but in April of 2015.. i set a milestone
to respond in poetic
micro-expression way
to all the dVerse prompts
and links through March
of 2016.. meeting
the milestone.. a
little late..
i compiled
it all last
week into
one Free Verse
Stream of Conscious Novel
writing practice that ended up
much larger than i expected..
titled “GodsUniVerseNovel3”..
third for me.. just for fun..
and this one weighed
in too large for my
blogger blogs
and just
fitting in
Word Press
noW aT literally
338,300 words
and truly my entire
blog is one poem
with now 633 macro
verses at over 3 Million
literal Words.. in poetic
way of course.. hehe..
Microsoft Word says
the poem i finished
as Novel the
other day
would take
3,000 pages to
print.. not counting
close to 300 gorgeous
photos of the surrounding
Panhandle Beaches
where i live.. so..
the entire blog
would likely
take 30,000 pages
to print.. so yes..
like my about
section in
my Word
Press
Blog says..
‘i like to write
wherevertheinternettakesme..
StiLL so trUe.. my friend.. in ePic way.. and
perhaps one day technology will catch up
to me.. as even with my fast broad
band access and big iMac
computer.. a couple
of minutes to
open
me up..
it takes..
wITh BiG wInks..:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! That is quite an endeavor! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
Oh, yes, I remember Skip to My Lou; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; and Romper Stomper Bomper Boo. Fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah Patti — was that from Romper Room? Did you know Ding Dong School with Miss Francis? 🙂
LikeLike
Yes, and yes! We’re we ever that young? Sigh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Liked this, as I remember so many of those things. Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy to take you for a trip down memory lane. Did you ever ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl? 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for bringing back the fun and carefree memories of childhood Lillian ~ I remember those days, smiles ~
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes — the innocence of growing up in the 1950s with black and white tv in a huge piece of furniture — think we called it a console? I also remember a tv show called Winky Dink and Me and you sent away for a piece of plastic and “magic crayons” — then they would put a treasure map or something like that up on the tv and you’d put your magic piece of plastic on the tv screen — rubbing it must have caused electricity that made it stick — and then you “connected” the dots with your magic crayons. Sadly, I forgot to put the plastic sheet up one day and that was the end of Winky Dink at my house! 😦
LikeLike
I love your mini memoir, Lillian. I remember that song, “Skip to My Lou” and Howdy Doody…I loved all the shows that I grew up with.
I hope someone remembers you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah many thanks! Actually, Junie Z and I got together last year after not having seen each other for 50+ years! Amazing to see her again!!! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess it was! I’m still in touch with two sisters who grew up around the corner from me and that’s 50+ years too. One of them is the Patsy in my poem…we were best pals. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I liked skip-to-my-lou and Lone Ranger…have seen some wooden Indians in my day too 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun to think about those innocent days 🙂
LikeLike
so many specific memories evoked by such well-chosen words. this is above all a nostalgic piece, i believe. beautifully done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So glad you enjoyed. I’m always a bit worried that nostalgia will become too “sentimental” — not such a good word in the world of poetry.
LikeLike
i think sentiment only undermines poetry when one focuses on the abstract emotion alone – but your nostalgia is defined and distinct, executed very well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ah….many thanks for the kind words.
LikeLike
Oh, yes! Miss Frances was special! Thanks for the memories (are you humming?)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Isn’t it called an ear worm? Skip to my Lou has been an ear worm since I wrote the poem. Wow — I don’t know many people who watched Ding Dong School and Miss Frances. I actually saw a lovely obituary for her a few years back (or a number of years back?) I’m sure if you google her you can find it. She was indeed very special.
LikeLike
I remember ‘Skip to my Lou’, the Lone Ranger and days of the week underpants – we had them in the UK too. But your other memories are all new to me, so the images were great! I think I’ve said somewhere on Poets Pub before that I love memory poems and dVerse is the perfect place to read a fabulously wide range of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well there you go — I keep learning things on dVerse. New to poetry writing in February 2015, I’ve learned so many forms. Had never heard of the genre of “memory poems” — but it sure makes sense. I did indeed have fun with this one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, wow! I had forgotten about the wooden Indian. I traveled to the Dells with my grandfather in 1962. At nine years old, I was just as impressed with staying in a cabin smaller than a bedroom and with knotty pine walls as I was with the sights. (After all, Niagara Falls was practically in our backyard!)
Thank you for the reminder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh yes….the knotty pine walls in the cabins — I’d forgotten that. And the boat ride where they pointed out all the rock formations too! Quite the place 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Skip to my Lou, Romper Room, Lone Ranger, Days of the week undies and I would not wear the Tuesday one because it was pink. Oh the memories!
LikeLiked by 1 person
fun fun fun! Glad you skipped down memory lane with me. Smiling I am! Somehow I never seemed to have a full set of those undies 😦
LikeLike
Evocative of my era!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Was surely mine! 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lillian,
reading each line here etch a sketched my smile wider:)
the memories of a childhood when simple really was
then to take those trinkets of ‘kid’dom’ and polish them off with a zinger of an amazing line
perfection
what child doesn’t want to be remembered-regardless of their generation
am:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember the etch-a-sketch! 🙂 So fun that statement…..and so glad you enjoyed. Ah…growing up in the 1950s — a more naive time I think. Glad you enjoyed 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Many of those things formed no part of an Aussie childhood – yet still I get the flavour of them from your words, and your poem makes me smile.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So glad you enjoyed, Rosemary! It’s so fun to experience multiple cultures in this blogging sphere. I learned about the author Enid Blyton (writes for youth) through replies and checked some of her books out of the library. Will now be recommending them to my grandchildren! 🙂 So — happy my poem made you smile.
LikeLike
Now this creeps me out a bit, Lillian. I remember everything AND I even have a picture with that Indian in the Dells taken when I was about 5 years old, I’m guessing 1948. The only difference, not the same ballet teacher and I didn’t last long, not much past the 5 positions. Ha! Seriously–the same darn Indian!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! THAT is amazing and gives new credence to the words “it’s a small world.” 🙂 Well, I made it all the way through dancing lessons until half-way through my senior in high school year. And then, my poor mother, I decided to quite — right when she was going to finally see her daughter in a solo at the final dance recital! I’m sure she was ready to strangle me 🙂 But, the debate squad and cheerleading took precdence. The same Indian – yeeeow – that is incredible!!! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I need to find that photo, scan it and send it to you. When and if I catch up. :0)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes! Please do!! As my grand daughters say – we can be twinsies 😊
LikeLike