The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,226 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life…
For this week’s Out There Kids/Whistle While You Work Intermediate Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, Piper and I took our newly honed and finely tuned grass-whistling skillz to new heights.
Namely, the tippy-top of her tree, because, well, we had been threatened with bodily harm by all of our respective family members if we so much as blew another blade of grass within their hearing again.
Boy, talk about tough critics.
I guess not everyone is as sophisticated and highbrow as Piper and I are when it comes to the art of whistling camp tunes.
That’s right, my minions, camp tunes. Those wonderful and joyful melodies of our childhoods, peppered with catchy lyrics, snappy beats, and endless verses. Oh, I do mean endless, too. Do you even KNOW how many verses 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall has?
You do?
99?
Okay, that was an easy one. I was just testing you …
So, yes, okay, we had to take our two-person band out to the trees, but that’s okay. The acoustics are great up there anyway! The bluejays are totally onto something.
It took quite a while to actually learn and perfect an actual tune. I mean, we were the town’s resident experts at grass whistling, but incorporating our honking and tooting and blasting into a real melody? Well, that took some time. Not a problem … we weren’t allowed to go back inside the house anyway until our pockets had been checked for grass blades. Ahem.
We started small, with a classic tune: Row, Row, Row Your Boat. It sunk. But we patched it back up, and soon enough, it was almost, practically, just about, in a way, nearly recognizable.
Then we moved onto Home On the Range (Emmaline, the Bovine Princess, really enjoyed this one). From there, we began work on a two-part harmony with Do Your Ears Hang Low? We really nailed the mournful cry of this one, if I do say so myself.
Then we practiced Bazooka Bubble Gum, followed by a rousing rendition of The Funky Chicken (I don’t recommend performing this one while treed), and we topped it off with the classic and oh-so timeless, The Bear Song.
Of course, what are camp songs without all the goofy lyrics? So, we took turns with our grass whistle so that the other member of our band could belt out some singing. Need something to start you off? We’re pretty partial to this one, ourselves:
The other day I met a bear Out in the woods Oh, way out there
He looked at me I looked at him He sized up me I sized up him
He said to me Why don’t you run I see you ain’t Got any gun
I said to him That’s a good idea So come on feet Away from here
And so I ran Away from there But right behind Me was that bear
And then I see Ahead of me A great big tree Oh, glory be!
The lowest branch Was ten feet up I’d have to jump And trust my luck!
And so I jumped Into the air But I missed that branch A way up there
Now don’t you fret Now don’t you frown ‘Cause I caught that branch On the way back down
This is the end There ain’t no more Until I meet That bear once more
treehouses and singing and whistling with grass, it doesnt get any better than that!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FELLOW FARMGIRLS OUT THERE!!
Oh, I do love those lyrics!!!