When You Are Old and Cannot See

DESCRIPTION: "When you are old and cannot see, Put on your specs and think of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (autograph album of George Washington Franklin, according to Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: age disability humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 123, "(When you are old)"; p. 135, "(When you are old and cannot see)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 128, "(When you are old and can not see)" (1 text)
NOTES [127 words]: The first of these is one of many items Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore extracted from the autograph album of George Washington Franklin, which he maintained 1882 to 1895 or after; the second is from Anna Duncan's autograph album, from 1897-1899. The Solomon-ZickaryZan text is from an autograph album from the family of Kate, Ella, Lucy, Maggie, and Bessie Burton, compiled 1895-1905.
Web searches for this quote turned up at least three other versions, one in the autograph book of Ida Deming (Bowles) of South Dakota, in 1898 and one from 1901 in the "Keville-Flanagan Autograph Book," apparently from Chicago. (The third quote I found was unsourced.) Since this is clearly a parody, it must have been in oral tradition, though I cannot prove that it is a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SaKo123W

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