In Old Pod-Auger Times

I 'll sing to you of the good old time
When people were honest and true,
Before their brains were rattled and crazed
By everything strange and new,
When every man was a workingman
And earned his livelihood,
And the women were smart and industrious
And lived for their families' good,
In the days of Andrew Jackson
And of old grand-daddy Grimes,
When a man wasn't judged by the clothes he wore
In old pod-auger times.

Young girls didn't hug nor kiss their fellows
Whenever they came to court,
Nor paddle around on roller skates ,
Nor pound a pianoforte.
They kept their men at a good arm's length
And made them know their place,
And they played upon washboards and "kittles" and brooms
With amazing skill and grace.
They didn't lay a-bed 'til eleven A.M.
Got up in the morning betimes,
And they didn't elope with the old man's coachman
In old pod-auger times.

Young fellows, they loaf about the street
And struggle with had cigars,
They stay out late when they should be at home
With their daddies and their mas.
They wear tight trousers, likewise tight boots,
And guzzle Lager beer,
And when their daddies foot up the bills
They find them pesky dear.
When my old men were farmer's boys
We'd neither dollars nor dimes,
We worked from daybreak till candlelight
In old pod-auger times.

Oh, the young men didn't drive fast horses
Nor gamble with cards and dice,
They didn't run church lotteries,
For it wan't considered nice.
But now they gamble and drink mean rum
And lead hypocritical lives,
And wives run away with each other's husbands
And husbands with other men's wives.
Folks didn't have delirium tremens
Nor perpetrate horrible crimes,
For the cider was good and the rum was pure
In old pod-auger times.

From Vermont Folk-songs and Ballads, Flanders
Collected from Mr. Brown, West Wardsboro, VT 1930
RG