“I know that, um, my Grandpa would always recite certain rhymes like when I was younger. And the one that I think he told the most was the, the one about like, um, I forget what it was called, it starts with an ‘A.’”

 

[Laughing]

 

“Um, Yeah, I know that’s really helpful.”

 

[Laughing] “That’s where the internet comes in.”

 

“Exactly! But I mean if you typed in the lyrics, or the words, it would be right there. Its like the ‘As I was going up the stair, I saw a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. Oh I wish, I wish he’d go away.’ So that one was always around.”

 

“And when would he say that, like, just randomly?”

 

“Yeah, just randomly. Kinda, ya know, like when we were just hanging out, over tea. Yeah, tea time is big, um, at my house. We always have, like, tea and biscuits. And we try to make it either at, I don’t know; I like having it at, like, 4 o’clock, but now that’s when I eat dinner, so.”

 

“So, have an early tea time haha.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“Do you know where your Grandpa learned that saying?”

 

“Um, I’m, I’m not sure. Cuz I don’t know if that’s one, cuz he came from England so I’m not sure if that’s one that his parents would recite to him. I don’t even know when the thing was written.”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“Interesting.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“That’s very helpful.”

 

“It’s funny, like, where, like, people pick up those random sayings from, like, and it becomes their trademark.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I keep trying to find my trademark but I haven’t come across one yet haha.”

 

“Yeah, um, I don’t know, well I guess it’s kind of interesting cuz, like, he had that one that was kind of like, ya know, he would always recite that one. And, um, and I’ve picked one up that, like, a different one, but I like saying that one. Even though it has nothing to do with anything.”

 

 

The poem that this saying comes from was originally written by William Hughes Mearns and published in 1922, though it originally was a song from 1899.