Do you know the song "I've got sixpence"? I don't remember learning it but I'm pretty sure the last time I thought of it was when I lived in Maine, almost 50 years ago. I'm quite sure that it was because I was living in Maine that I always sang "I'm happy as a clam" rather than a lark. And "no pretty little girls" became "no sassy little boys." And when the song continues "rolling home..." we always responded "squares don't roll!" I just listened to Bing Crosby singing it & there's a line I don't remember ever hearing: "happy as the day when we line up for our pay" ~ I've always sung "happy as a clam believe me," which is really a line from elsewhere in the song. So there you have two things ~ the folk editing of a song that happens when a line is forgotten or misremembered & can easily become the or a standard version. More interesting to me is that it burst upon me all these decades later, without any trigger that I know of, complete in melody & words. I found myself singing it out of the blue. Where has it been all this time? I need more songs to bellow as I ride around town on my bike so I hope there are a few more lurking in whatever corner of my memory "I've got sixpence" was sleeping.
Come to thing of it, I probably learned it from my mom, since I see now it was a hit from 1941, when she knew all the popular songs.
Here's the words:
I've got sixpence, jolly jolly sixpence, I've got sixpence to last me all my life. Oh, I've got tuppence to spend, & tuppence to lend, & tuppence to send home to my wife (poor wife). / No cares have I to grieve me, no sassy little boys to deceive me, I'm happy as a clam believe me, as we go rolling rolling home. / Rolling home (squares don't roll), rolling home (squares don't roll!), by the light of the silvery moo-oo-oon. I'm happy as a clam believe me, as we go rolling rolling home.
Next verse is fourpence & there's nothing for the wife. Then tuppence & nothing to lend or for the wife.