Mondegreens

My students and I have been having fun with a Facebook thread on mondegreens.  As I learned in this sequence of funny posts and comments, a mondegreen is a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song.  This usually happens for either a non-reading child or an adult hearing an unfamiliar song without being able to read the words simultaneously. 

I split up the comments on Dorcas Smucker's Facebook post and gave each student about ten comments.  From those comments they were to write a little story on mondegreens, to be read aloud to the rest of the class.  They could also include any that they either heard themselves or experienced themselves. 

We had a merry time in class today. 

Serena told about her little brother Charles, who was listening to Shalom's (a local men's quartet) rendering of "Come, Come, Ye Saints" over the time of being potty trained.  The phrase "No toil nor labor fear . . . " in his interpretation became No toilet paper fear. . .
 
One of my students used to hear "Menno Simons, What a Name . . ."instead of "Man of Sorrows, What a Name . . . "  She gets the award for most pointed cultural appropriation of a song.

From Facebook, probably the most outrageous misunderstanding was from "Lead On, O King Eternal"--mangled to say Lead on O Kinky Turtle.  Turtles also appeared in "A turtle's life is better" (Eternal life is better). 

Dorcas led off by asking if anyone else used to pity Ferman Deep, who was always grounded.  (From "We Have an Anchor"--"grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love").

The mother of several of  my students (one who shares my given and maiden name) used to hear "hard eggs, broken pieces, ruined lives . . . "  Switch out eggs for aches and you have the original.  And can't you just see those eggshell fragments from peeling hard-boiled eggs--broken pieces of course. 

Annette Stoltzfus (the local one?) used to sing "the half has never yappentoe . . . " (yet been told).  Coming right up:  new word for the updated version of Merriam-Webster Colliegate.  Yappentoe.

There is raaaspberry pie instead of "there is rest by and by."  "Give us this day our gravy bread."  "Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonshine. . . Oh no!   Teetotalers all--singing that song, no doubt.  Talk about incongruity.

A visitor to a Mennonite church service once thought "Just As I Am" was making a statement about the peculiar style of "home-sewn dress she observed:  "Dressed As I Am Without One Pleat."

At the sewing circle one day a little Pennsylvania-dutch-speaking girl heard the ladies singing "Bringing nae [sewing] machines . . . " (Bringing in the sheaves).  Sure enough.  That's just what the ladies had done--brought their sewing machines. 

Those poor shepherds on the Judean hills who had to "wash their socks by night, all seated on the ground. . ." An uncomfortable position for a distasteful job--done in the dark, to boot. 

Cedric's sister was listening to a song with ear buds and singing along when she must have come to  the phrase "Don't let my system blow" and caroled out "Don't let my sister know."  I can't for the life of me think what the original message of that song might have been.  Redneck version of "Keep me safe till the storm passes by?"

It's probably a mercy that I can't remember my own mondegreens, but I'd love to hear more of them from my readers.  If you've implored others to "Rescue the parachute" or announced "Rex chewed the paraffin" please tell us all about it.