Found a Peanut

Each time I see news reports on the salmonella problem with peanuts/peanut products, I’m reminded of the old Girl Scout song we used to drone at Scout events/camp. “Found a Peanut” was very prophetic.

The words go something like this (condensed version). Found a peanut just now. It was rotten. Ate it anyway. Got sick just now. I died just now. Went to heaven just now. As you can tell it was a deep spiritual song. Not really – it was more like “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” peanut version. But you get the idea.

Why is it I can remember many of those scout and camp songs? Brownies, Girl Scouts taught me lots of hokie songs. Bar-L Ranch – the horse camp in Guthrie Center, Iowa where I spent a week each of 4 summers was great for square dancing and singing. Heel toe, heel toe, slide, slide. The camp song was, “I’m a juvenile delinquent, afraid to go to Bar-L Ranch”.

I learned several songs at Cheley Camps way out in Colorado, (where we walked around just like a squashed -insert clap-tomato). Friend Sally and I spent a month there after sixth grade. I think they made us sing for our supper. Yes the tomato line was in their “signature” song – I guess because it rhymed with Colorado. Both my mom and my Aunt Marty attended that camp. Now my cousin’s daughter goes there each summer. I wonder if they still sing the tomato song?

Though I’ve never been a songstress, sometimes I miss group singing like that. It’s kind of joyous like dancing. When my buddy Deb and I kayak sometimes we sing. “Rolling on the River” (Ike and Tina version) is one of our faves. Kayaking is also a joyous activity – especially when it’s on a river in NW Iowa.

Karaoke is an accepted way to sing in public. It can be fun, if you’re in the right mood (insert have had the right number of drinks). You need to time it right, so you’re not so tipsy you can’t carry a tune in a beer bucket. Last Halloween a few of us sang the old Beetles song “She was Just 17” at the Elm’s Club. This was while dressed in our marathoner outfits and sucking our cheeks in to look like actual marathoners. We were pretty damn good. Compared to the rest of the drunks anyway.