My mother is obsessed....

My mom found this poem (it's really a song from the early 1900s) in a bunch of papers in my grandmother's hutch. Her grandmother (my great grandma) used to read it to my mom when she was a little girl and it used to make my mom cry!

The Plaint of the Little Bisque Doll
or "I've Got a Pain in My Sawdust"

composition: Herman Avery Wade
lyrics: Henry Edward Warner

A little bisque doll and a little rag doll
And a dolly imported from France
Were sitting one day on the shelf of the store
With a doll that could wind up and dance
When all of a sudden, the shopkeeper heard
A scream that rang out thro' the store
And this was the plaint of the little bisque doll
That made such an awful uproar

I've got a pain in my sawdust
That's what's the matter with me
Something is wrong with my little inside
I'm just as sick as can be
Don't let me faint, someone get me a fan
Someone else run for the medicine man
Ev'ryone hurry as fast as you can
I've got a pain in my sawdust

They took her away in a hospital van
And the whole town was filled with the blues
For ev'ryone thought it was quite an odd thing
And the papers all printed the news
The surgeons looked wise and they all shook their heads
And asked her just where she was sick
"I think it's 'appendi-sawdust'!", she exclaimed
"And won't you please do something quick?"

Oh, sad was the day for the little bisque doll
For they cut all her stitches away
and looked for the seat of the terrible ache
"'Twas a delicate task," they all say
For none of the surgeons had ever before
Performed on a dolly's inside
They tried to re-stuff her but didn't know how
And this was her wail as she died…

It's sort of creepy if you ask me. I'm afraid my mother has become a little obsessed with this rhyme as she read it out loud emphatically to both my sister and I and is sending me links to the song from all sorts of places on the internet.

This song reminds me of all the nursery rhymes and such that we all knew by heart as children but didn't understand the meaning. Take "Ring Around the Rosie" for example: Some people say it refers to the Black Plague while others say it has no meaning. Either way, it's creepy! "Ashes, ashes we all fall down"? Hello cremation!

It sort of makes me laugh when I think about what people used to write songs about in the past. They seem so innocent compared to today's songs. Think about it: songs about dolls vs. songs about pimpin' out your ladies at the club with gin and juice and cocaine.

I think I know what they mean when people talk about the "good old days" now....