There are so many I remember. Not all of them, though. Because there are more than 700 of the Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. Some are incredible stories, and others are just a little bit of nonsense. We know the usual suspects, such as Jack and Jill. Little Miss Muffet. Old King Cole.
I knew them in various ways as a child. Many I read. Other times, we sang them as tunes, like Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Or, then there was bath time when I’d hear Rub-A-Dub-Dub. Three Men In a Tub.
There have been numerous authors of these tales over the years. I am not sure if a person has to be “Mother Goose Certified” to write these, or if any old Joe can put together a rhyme and duck, duck, goose it.
But. It all started somewhere, and this was with Charles Perrault. Today is his birthday, January 12, 1628, born in Paris, France. He laid the foundations for the fairy tale genre. His best-known tales include “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Sleeping Beauty.”
Charles was a lawyer. But mostly, he was in charge of Royal Buildings in France. When he was 67, Charles decided to dedicate himself to children. And that is when he started his writing. Those good, good tales. It is never too late to be young again.
Yes, some we sing like songs. You know. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Others are simply spoken, recited. Again, I don’t know why some have melodies, and others do not. Is it hard to sing Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son?
I often wonder who wrote “Buckle My Shoe.” I mean. What the heck? A big fat hen? There seemed to be a little bit of a storyline going until that “Nine, Ten” saga. Then the bulky chicken appears. Things go poorly from there. I never knew before today, but the count goes all the way to twenty. “At Fifteen, Sixteen,” there are “Maids in the Kitchen.” I hope the big fat hen wasn’t involved.
Another unanswered question I’ve had since my youth. Is the “Jack” in Jack and Jill, the same Jack that was nimble and jumped over the candlestick? And was this before or after the hill incident? And. Was his last name Horner? The guy who pulled out a plum?
More than anything, it is interesting to me how we remember these nursery rhymes from half a century ago. Or even longer in some cases. They stick in our minds like glue. Superglue, the kind on the TV commercials where the guy’s construction helmet is glued to the crossbeam with him still in the hat.
Anyway, we remember lyrics, and music lyrics, the same way we remember other things. By good old repetition. And hand-in-hand with repetition comes practice.
Think about almost any activity. Let’s say football. The players must repeatedly rehearse the “plays” they are learning for the big game. Over and over again. All of this so that they can remember which way to go on the field.
So. We rarely hear something once and immediately know all the words. We listen to it over and over again. So there we are. Repeating and practicing and memorizing song lyrics until the words become almost unconscious.
Finally, rhyme and pattern also help us remember things. It is often easy to predict some of the contexts of the next line. Five. Six. Pick up sticks. The patterns help us line up the number of syllables of the line.
So, now, when I’m washing the dishes, and I start reciting Hey, Diddle, Diddle. I know to blame it on the spoon.
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“People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn’t.”
― Christopher Paolini
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“When the remembering was done, the forgetting could begin.”
― Sara Zarr
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“There are some things one remembers even though they may never have happened.”
― Harold Pinter, Old Times
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Burnt into our memories, like a candlestick
