Nellie the Elephant - who else remembers?

typo alert

Yammy, my mother often used to sing All The Nice Girls Love A Sailor - my father was in the RN all through WW2 and they married just before it started.

And a handsome chap he was too - here he is in uniform, on watch - pic apparently taken by an American journalist who was ‘embedded’ with them, as they say now, on one of his ships.

Children's Favourites introduced by Annika Rice every Christmas morning, Radio 2.
This year's should still be available on BBC sounds all those old songs make an appearance.

I remember two cheeky ones:
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Seven Little Girls (sitting in the back seat)
Somehow they stick in your mind, I wonder why? 😂

Witzend

*Yammy*, my mother often used to sing All The Nice Girls Love A Sailor - my father was in the RN all through WW2 and they married just before it started.

And a handsome chap he was too - here he is in uniform, on watch - pic apparently taken by an American journalist who was ‘embedded’ with them, as they say now, on one of his ships.

My father wore a cap like that and I played in it with its white tropical top. I had his kit bag as well. I have photos of him marching past Lord Mountbatten in Singapore.
He went in as soon as he was 18 and was on a landing craft at D-Day ferrying Canadian troops to the beaches.
He wouldn't marry my mum although they were engaged until everything was over. He came home from India where he had been with Americans in 1946.I can still sing part of that song.

The best kind of Trump Trump Trump

I remember my father’s cap, Yammy - there in a drawer for years. I suspect that my mother threw it out once dementia had got a grip 🙁 - he’d died many years previously.

I'm loving this thread - it's reviving so many memories! Thank you!

Only this morning as we supped our TIB, we were reminiscing about Anthony Newley's alternative version of Pop Goes The Weasel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkzMjXwDFHg

Glorianny

"There's a little yellow idol to the west of Katmandu" (it might be east)
that's how it starts
"You're a better man than I am Gungadin" Think that's how it ends- Kipling.
Love Nellie the Elephant.

My GCs for some reason love "Any Old Iron"

"When father papered the parlour"
And (but I change the words a bit) "Ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus"
Second verse should be "Ye can shove yer other granny off a bus" -reason "cos she's yer daddy's mummy" (and that's me!!!)

The Green Eye of the Yellow God and Gunga Din are two different poems, by J. Milton Hayes and Rudyard Kipling respectively.
I sang Nellie the Elephant to all my grandchildren, along with many other ‘Uncle Mac’ favourites.
I was showing them Bill and Ben, and I was explaining about black and white television when I was a child. I went on to say that my mother had no television at all, so 4 year old asked if she had to watch everything on her tablet.
I still find it hard to grasp that so many children have no idea about ‘the olden days’.

And, * Glorianny*, it’s to the North of Katmandu! 😂

Witzend

I remember my father’s cap, Yammy - there in a drawer for years. I suspect that my mother threw it out once dementia had got a grip 🙁 - he’d died many years previously.

We have had similar experiences Witzend. Sometimes with a laugh others more poignant.
My parents went to visit a cousin in Queensland and mum asked dad when he was going to buy clothes for the holiday. He said no need and came out dressed in full tropical kit even the knee socks except for the shoes and he had a big pair of white trainers on.
When mum had to go into a care home my father had been dead for at least 15 years, she chose what she wanted to take and I pointed out she did not have a photo of Dad.
Her answer only if you can find that one of him in the Navy, not the one showing his tattoo though.

The Ugly Duckling I think by Danny Kaye, I know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and My Brother by Terry Scott.

I remember so many of these. Also ying tong iddle I po by The Goons.

I was showing them Bill and Ben

And -
We want Muffin
Muffin the Mule
Dear old Muffin
Playing the fool
We love Muffin the Mule

They're coming thick and fast now.

What did Delaware boys. What did Delaware?

She wore a brand New Jersey
That's what she did wear!

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.

Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, mend it.

Etc

This one is so funny, by Allan Sherman:

Hello Muddah, hello Faddah
Here I am at Camp Grenada
Camp is very entertaining
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining

And several more verses, worth looking up .....
😄

www.songfacts.com/lyrics/allan-sherman/hello-muddah-hello-faddah

Remember lots of these.

Witzend, what a handsome chap your father was!

JenniferEccles, that film, Mandy, made a big impression on me as a child. It was so moving when she finally managed to speak. A lovely little actress and good to hear that she’s still around.

I remember Uncle Mac saying “Goodnight Children, Everwhere”, and once added something really unpleasant about children, thinking thst the recording had stopped.

Songs on car journeys used to be Coming Round the Mountain and My Bonny Lies Over the Mountain but it took me a long while before I realised it was Bonny not body!

A few years ago my DH bought me a set of 3 CDs with many of these songs and more. I haven't listened to them for ages but I'm now going to have to find them and bring back a few memories! My personal favourite was 'My old man's a dustman'.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
the cops have wooden legs.
The bulldogs all have rubber teeth
and the hens lay soft boiled eggs.

I remember all of the above but no one has yet mentioned my favourite, Muffin the Mule, I had a tin one
Hi Lily, Hi Lili, Hi Low, can’t remember which film
High Hopes - Frank Sinatra
Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By Thé Sea - Max Bygraves.

Any one remember Goodness gracious me. Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers

I remember listening to most of these on the radio. Lovely memories.

Yes, Sharon, I was thinking of that only the other day!