Thursday, January 28, 2010

Ladybugs

When I was a little girl
I’d put a ladybug on my finger
and say this silly rhyme to it:
Ladybug, ladybug, fly away soon.
Your house is on fire, your children
are gone
...then I’d blow on the bug
and it would take off flying very fast.


I never thought in those days
how strange those words were,
good thing the poor ladybug
didn’t understand my chant.
She might have had a house with
children waiting at home for her.

FYI-possible historical connotations of the rhyme.

10 comments:

  1. I used to sing that little song when I played with doodle-bugs.

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  2. Linn,
    When I was a child I lived in Texas where the soil was sandy. You have to have sand to have doodle bugs. Under a huge oak tree, where there was no grass, I would play with the doodlebugs. They're a snall insect that tunnels down into sand leaving a small cone shaped hole behind them. It was really fun when you could catch them tunneling and you could see the grains of sand they were kicking up while they were digging. It's been many years since I'd thought of doodlebugs until today. Fun, it made me laugh.

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  3. I know there must be some histiry behind that little ditty. I wonder what it is.

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  4. google "Lady bird, lady bird" to get some interesting additions to this old English nursery rhyme.

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  5. Great Blog & Art work! New blog on the Hx. of the Ladybug: http://historyoftheladybug.blogspot.com/

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  6. I didn't learn that song until I was an adult, and the strangeness of it always intrigued me. Well done, Lin.

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  7. That's so funny! I used to sing that too and never thought about the real connotations of it! Wonder where and how people made up this stuff! Hope you enjoyed your new critique group!

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  8. our song to lady bugs(flying bugs) translates to:
    Fly, fly flying bug, your mother will buy you slippers and shoes ... funny and pointless eh?

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  9. I do love ladybugs, but I'm also aware some might be gentleman bugs, or how would there be ladybug children????

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  10. That link was interesting as you know I love to learn that stuff..

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