An' he's the goodest man ever you saw!
He comes to our house every day
An' waters the horses, an' feeds 'em hay.
An' he opens the shed - an' we all laugh
When he drives out our little old wobblely calf.
And if our hired girl says he can
He milks the cow for Elizabeth Ann.
Ain't he an awful good Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
Why, the Raggedy Man, he is so good
He splits the kindlin' for us and chops the wood.
And then he spades in our garden too
He does most things that boys can't do.
He climbed clean up in our big tree
And shook an apple down for me.
And and another too, for Elizabeth Ann .
And another too for The Raggedy Man.
Ain't he an awful kind Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
And The Raggedy Man one time say he
Picks roast rambos from an orchard-tree.
And ate 'em - all while roastin hot!
Ain't he the beatin'est Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
Rhymes of Childhood
James Whitcomb Riley
One day I found a group of fives singing, chair-dancing and reciting this wonderful, working man poem by James Whitcomb Riley.
It was followed by "Old Dan Tucker was a Mountain Man. Washed his face in a frying pan. Combed his hair with a wagon wheel and died with a toothache in his heel. Now get out the way Old Dan Tucker. You're too late to stay for supper. Supper's over and breakfast is cooking but Old Dan Tucker just standing there looking."
The words were carefully inscribed on big, hanging chunks of sturdy, chart paper. The children loved these words since the rhythms and narratives were helping them to read. They loved them for the pure joy each inspired. But the charts are gone now, stored and ignored, as are the opportunities they represent for literacy and community building. The adults who summoned the time and talent to author them, have also vanished into a rumored, lost tribe of educators now roaming the earth in search of a place called school. Big Books are no longer in use although there are literally hundreds of them piled bent and discarded on the floor of a chaotic closet so disorganized that it is incapable of functioning as the "Guided Reading Room". Children are not being guided through wise and wonderful experiences in language anymore so the messy mash is of no consequence. Close the door and subscribe to the absence of memory. It goes down much smoother.
