IN GRANDMA'S DAY

Reprinted in AppLit with permission from the James Taylor Adams Collection
U of Virginia's College at Wise/Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College

Collected by James M. Hylton

Wise, Virginia 

NOTE: This text was recopied directly from a typewritten copy in the archives of the Blue Ridge Institute. James Taylor Adams (1892-1954) kept typewritten copies of the folklore he and others collected during the last thirty years of his life, while he lived in Wise County, VA. Typographical errors in the original have not been corrected, except for some obvious errors in spacing. In the third stanza, "lokking" is surely supposed to be "looking."

Related to this Writer April 15, 1942, Norton, Virginia, by Mrs. William, (Bill) Tolliver, who has given this Writer other material elsewhere among these pages and who thinks this old Ballad is a pretty good one. It is among the many she has saved, written or found of interest among the mountain songs and sayings. It was among many that she has kept and she knows not where it originated, saying that it just accumulated with the lot.

"In Grandma's Day" "In my young days," said Grandma, As she laid her knitting down, "We didn't do the things you do today. We didn't make up parties to go out and paint the town; Shooting craps and poker we didn't play. II We knew about no cocktails; we drank tea and lemonade; We read "Lavender & Lace–not Madame Glyn; And if we smoked a cigarette, I'm very much afraid Our parents would have thought it was an awful sin. III "We never dreamed of kissing when we sat out at a dance." So said the dear old lady, lokking sad, "We didn't go on cuddling trips--we never had a chance-- But Oh, my gosh, I with to Pete we had.

[JTA-9497]

Replacement photocopy made by BRI, 9/1992

copyright 2007 U of Virginia's College at Wise/Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College
all rights reserved

AppLit Fiction and Poems Index
Complete list of AppLit pages on Folklore
Complete list of AppLit pages on Poetry
Links to Other Online texts

Home

Contact Tina L. Hanlon with questions or comments on this page.