Little kids are so funny. My three year old grandson has obviously been doing an activity in preschool and is now singing "Pop Goes the Weezer". I am surprised that he hasn't asked me to define weezer or ask why it pops. Just in case, I looked up "Pop Goes the Weasel" and learned that it was probably just an innocent song and dance from England popular in the 1850s. It's strange how I was never curious about it before. I've known the song since I was a kid, and it never even occurred to me to check on its origin.
My grandson also loves a very old Humpty Dumpty book that is missing the last two pages. It is a library book that was purchased years ago after meeting with a bit of bad luck. The story shows the king's men shooting off a cannonball that knocks the unsuspecting egg off of the wall. In other words, his fall from the wall was no accident, but everyone does rush to try to save him. My grandson has memorized the words of the book, but we always make up a different ending since the last two pages are missing.
I'm sure there are other more politically correct versions of Humpty Dumpty's accident. Some of the older versions of nursery rhymes and children's stories are rather harsh. Yet, a lot of us who read and loved the older versions didn't see them in a negative way. Looking back, I'm surprised that I didn't worry about a wolf attempting to blow down my house or chasing me through the woods. Stories were just stories.
Things have changed so much. Technology is providing more information than we could possibly have discovered without it. I am afraid I have become rather lazy. Instead of using a dictionary or phone book, I just go to my computer. Instead of reading a map, I'd rather use a GPS. I did google Humpty Dumpty and found way too much information. As a college student, it would have required weeks in the library to get as much info as I did in seconds. I found a really cute puzzle that I plan to share with my grandsons. It involves moving squares around to see what Humpty looked like after he fell. Oh no! It is kind of like a rubric's cube. Maybe it's too hard for me. I might find out if I'm as smart as a three and a six year old. I also learned that the "fact that Humpty Dumpty is an egg is not actually stated in the rhyme. In its first printed form, in 1810, it is a riddle, and exploits for misdirection the fact that "humpty dumpty" was 18th-Century reduplicative slang for a short, clumsy person."
This is Friday, and I think I've learned enough for one day!