Monday, July 21

Double Petunia

There's a saying / piece of prose / rhyme / poem / whatever - that my California and Nevada family knows by heart. Since I originally heard it from my Dad, and my Aunt Mary Lou knows it, I'm guessing that it is quite old, say the twenties or thirties (that's last century for you youngsters).

If you google the title of this post, you'll find that "Double Petunia" is actually a type of flower. Like a begonia. And thus we begin:

A petunia is a flower like a begonia
A begonia is a meat like a sausage
A sausage and battery is a crime
Monkeys crime trees
Trees a crowd
A rooster crowd and made a noise
A noise is part of your face like an eye
Eye is the opposite of nay
Horses nay, and horses have colts
And if you go to bed at night with a colt and leave the window open, you'll wake up in the morning with Double Petunia!

6 comments:

Melissa said...

I just stumbled on this; my dad used to recite it when I was a kid, and I believe he got it from my Grandfather, who was born in 1916. I had always assumed it was a vaudeville routine or something like that. The version we tell is this:

What happens when you go to bed with a little colt?
You wake up with double petunias!
Double petunias is like begonias.
Begonias and salami make sausage.
Sausage and battery is a crime.
Monkeys crime trees.
Trees a crowd.
The rooster got up in the morning and crowd. Made an awful noise.
Like the eyes and noise on your face.
Eyes is opposite Nays.
Horses nays, and also have little colts.

What happens if you go to bed with a little colt? You wake up with double petunias!

Addy Wireshure said...

My mother would say in response to the question, "what's a petunia?"

A petunia is a kind of a flower like a begonia. A begonia is a kind of assausage. Assausage and battery is a crime. Monkeys crime trees; threes a crowd. The rooster crowd in the morning waking the colt, that developed into double petunia.

C. Seely Smith said...

Mine comes from my mother's family out of California. Obviously lacking verse from my p9or memory.

C. Seely Smith said...

Got mine from my mother's family who come eventually from California to Ga. In the 20's.Obviously my has lost some to memory but always been family fun.

Anonymous said...

Ours is

Do you know the difference between a single petunia and a double petunia?
A single petunia is a flower you eat like a sausage
You can be arrested for sausage and battery, that's a crime
Monkeys crime trees, tree's a crowd
Roosters crowd in the morning, and that's a noise
you have a noise on your face, and also two eyes
the opposite of eyes is nays, horses nays
A little horse is a colt
If you go to bed with a colt, you're liable to wake up with a double petunia.

Carol - I'm 13 said...

My mom taught us this. She was from Tennessee

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