Squarin' Up Time

DESCRIPTION: With their fish sold, the sailors go to the store to "square up." They spend their cash on various items, often behaving very badly when they can't have what they want. All is well until the parson strolls in, whereupon the men start offering him credit
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sailor money humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 98-99, "Squarin'-Up Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 182, ""Squarin' Up Time (1 text; the tune -- "Vilikens and His Dinah" -- is on pp. 180-181)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 35-36, "Squarin' Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. R. Scammell, _My Newfoundland_, Harvest House, 1966, pp. 120-122, "Squarin' Up" (1 text 1 tune)
ST FJ182 (Partial)
Roud #4548
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Squaring Up Time" (on NFOBlondahl02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Merchant's Song" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system) and references there
NOTES [105 words]: Newfoundland fishermen lived much like American farmers: Borrow heavily in the spring to finance their fishing trips, spend the summer fishing, return in the fall with their yield, sell it and "square up" with the bank or the merchant. For background on this "truck system," see the notes to "The Merchant's Song."
For background on Arthur R. Scammell, see the notes on "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "The poem Squarin Up was written by Mr Scammell in 1933. This poem and some twenty others by the same author may be found in a booklet titled Mirrored Moments, published in Montreal in 1945." - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FJ182

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