Apusski Dusky

[ThomasinaJones]

How many people remember singing this song as kids? And Lily the Pink? Bananas in Pyjamas?

DH doesn't remember any of these, and it's making me sad.

Anyone joining me a little sing-along (cross-legged on the carpet, hoping the person next to you doesn't wet themselves today)?

There I was, digging this ' ole. I'm digging it round cos I don't want it square'

End up with the man in the bowler hat getting buried I think!

Mrs Hooligan's Christmas cake?

Don't dig it there, dig it elsewhere?

The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn to read and write, to read and wriiiiiite!

@ThomasinaJones This has brought back so many memories, Apusski and Okki Tokki in particular. We sang My Grandfather's clock at some music event in primary. I think we used to watch some TV shows in school in the AV room! We watched Words and Pictures. Other songs that have come to mind

If you want a calypso, here is what you must do...
inch worm, inch worm, measuring the merrigolds...
little boxes on the hilli side little boxes made of ticky tacky...

Then there were just pub piano classics, like Knees up Mother Brown, My Old Man said Follow the Van, She's a Lassie from Lancashire (maybe a Lancashire one that), Oh You Beautiful Doll you great big beautiful doll, etc

In my little garden,
now promise you won’t laugh,
I haven’t any flowers and I haven’t any grass…

I’ve got the songbook upstairs somewhere…

Quite a few Beatles songs in those books - Yellow Submarine, Obladih Obladah and I'm sure there were others. Lily the Pink was sung by The Scaffold in the 60s.

What about The Runaway Train and Nellie the Elephant?

I think I had those on a BBC cassette.

@ThomasinaJones Did you go to a small rural school in Scotland?

Your name suggests you're Welsh but this all sounds very familiar.

At our School (and probably across Scotland) we used to have a different "theme" in music each term with song books and related materials. I remember one was Sea Shanties e.g. Johnny Todd, Farewell & Adieu to you Fair Spanish Ladies. I think another one was Calypso so Banana Boat Song, Kingston Town etc.

Anyone remember any more?

I remember nearly all of these. We had assembly every morning and always sang a song or two.

Around the corner, and under a treeeeeee, a sargeant major...

I now have bananas in pyjamas stuck in my head!

Does anyone remember a song that went:

I had a cat
The cat pleased me
I fed my cat by yonder tree
Cat goes fiddle de fee

followed by a list of animals making sounds, including, I'm sure, a hen that went 'chimmy chuck'

We had the Apusskidu song book at primary school in the late 1970s. We always seemed to 'sing' the same few songs every week, every month, every year - usually Gobbolino, Michael Finnegan and Yellow Submarine. I don't even remember us doing Apusskidu itself, yet I know the tune!

My piano teacher was also a primary school teacher during the last decade. She's much the same age as me and remembers Apusskidu well but says it wasn't used during her teaching career as it wasn't National Curriculum. So there's a few thousand oiks been spared what I endured.

Oh that brought back memories! Totally forgot about apusskiduski!! I used to love - there was an old women who swallowed a fly..I dont know whhhyyy, she swallowed a fly 😛

I still teach that song in school!

Wow, I remember thinking that it seemed really old fashioned when I was singing it in the 80s/90s. What do today's children think of it?

It's a shame that schools don't have to do assembly any more - everyone of my generation sang something every day, because of assembly hymns.

Breast stroke! Side stroke! Butterfly and crawl . Doggy paddle, belly flop learn to do them all!!! Learn to swim!

Awww - I remember Apuskiduski!

It's a shame that schools don't have to do assembly any more - everyone of my generation sang something every day, because of assembly hymns.

Schools still have assemblies, they just don't usually involve singing!

@DeepSownSeeds If you want a calypso, here is what you must do...

First of all you need a rhythm so shake a little shake a little shake a little shaker
and you bang a drum, and you sing a song, and then there’s a calypso for you!

In middle ocean! Sardines are swimming!

I haven't thought about that for YEARS

I've been retired 9 years but I thought you still did have to have assembly every day. We didn't sing every day though that was once a week and we had a CD to sing along to.

Carry me ackee go a Linstead market, not a quattee would sell....
The ink is black, the page is white...
One night while driving sheep my companion lay asleep, there were lots of stars across the southern skyyy
Were you ever in Cardiff bay where the folks all shout hurray... hey ho away we go riding on a donkey ( was disappointed to learn that the donkey was some sort of engine, and not an actual donkey. My Almost Favourite Creature on Earth at that time. )

I think some of these were early clumsy attempts at what we would now term inclusion, and detractors would call cultural appropriation or some such.