Happy, Frisky Jim

DESCRIPTION: Assorted nonsense about Jim's family and neighbors: "I'm my daddy's only son, Gay and lively, full of fun, Brother's twice as old as me, So we're twins, you plainly see." Jim's girl, whose "mouth is like a big bull calf," also figures prominently
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense family twins
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 431, "Frisky Jim" (2 texts)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 153, "Happy, Frisky Jim" (1 traditional text plus a sheet music version, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 78, "Go Away Now" (1 text, probably not related, but it borrows the character of Happy, Frisky Jim)
ST R431 (Partial)
Roud #7610
NOTES [88 words]: Although the statement about the brothers being twins sounds like nonsense, there is a time when it is true -- at the time when the younger brother is exactly as old as the interval between the births of the older and younger. Of course, this requires a baby less than an hour old to be talking....
Although the sheet music version in Cazden et al is apparently from the nineteenth century, it doesn't appear to me to be the original; it looks as if it has had minstrel verses grafted onto a traditional (non-racist) core. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R431

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