Mason loves all moving things, including bugs. The other day I caught him happily watching this poor little beetle. It reminded me of a song that my uncle Jeff used to sing to us when he would come and visit that quickly became a family classic. My dad would pull out his guitar and we would sing it to my youngest brother, Alex. The song brings back many happy memories of my childhood and my musical uncle and it made me wish that I could be around him and and see some of his cool magic tricks again.
Alexander BeetleI had a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,
I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a matchbox and kept him all the day....
And Nanny let my beetle out
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out
She went and let my beetle out-
And beetle ran away.
She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches, and she just took off the lid
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.
She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid-
And we'd get another matchbox, and write BEETLE on the lid.
We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"
It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it might be ME,
And he had a kind of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very, very sorry that I tried to run away."
And Nanny's very sorry too, for you know what she did,
And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,
So Nan and me are friends, because it's difficult to catch
An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.
This also reminds me of the song, Ugly Bug Ball by Burl Ives. I remember watching this clip in the Disney movie, Summer Magic and on our Disney Sing-a-long Songs. My siblings and I got a kick out of it. Now that Mason is big on bugs, I catch myself singing it to him all the time.
4 comments:
Two of my favorite songs! I'm glad you're carrying on those traditions. And I'm always happy to see Mason being so excited and kind with animals and bugs. He'll sure be a big animal lover.
How could I possibly have forgotten that song??? We would dance and dance all over pretending to be beetles hiding from my dad. We're going "home" in July and I'll make sure he plays and sings for us and we'll do our best to look like beetles!
As always, love your blog!
Oh, and by the way... did you know that Alexander beetle is from Winnie the Pooh? In the original books Alexander is one of Rabbit's "friends and relations" who gets lost and everybody goes searching for him. Who knew!?
(Well, besides me.)
I love this song! The second-graders raised meal worms at school, and we now have a beetle in a baby food jar, which I just the other day told the kids should be named Alexander Beetle!
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