Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25]

DESCRIPTION: The young swain creeps into his sweetheart's house, but the young couple cannot keep quiet. The girl's mother, a widow, creeps down -- and tries to get the young man for herself! He insults her, and she drives him off with a broom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting fight mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws H25, "Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 248-249, "Courting the Widow's Daughter " (1 text)
Randolph 387, "The Widow's Old Broom" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 183, "Hard Times" (1 text, the first six verses being "Courting the Widow's Daughter" and the last seven being a reduced version, minus the chorus, of "The Rigs of the Times")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 22-24, "Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #127, "The Widows A-Courtin'" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 124-125, "Johnny McCardner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 156, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 236-237, 242-243, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House" (1 text)
DT 720, WIDAUGH
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 236-237, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jacobs)
Roud #659
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House" (AFS 4174 B1, 1940)
Charles Ingenthron, "The Widow's Old Broom" (AFS; on LC12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (plot)
cf. "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht" (plot)
File: LH25

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