Text/Context: “This is a girl scout song that we would always do at sleepaway camp, around the campfire, a bunch of sugar-high girls, the whole deal. At least in my unit, it was always reserved for the oldest troop. The eldest girls on their way out of the program are the ones teaching it to the younger girls, they have that privilege. And with girl scout songs, when you’re the one leading them you have to give 300% so that anyone else only has to give 50%. We usually do this starting at 3 or 4 but I’ll start at 2 for the sake of time.

Two buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn. 

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn.

No buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, let us reee-joice. Hallelujah!

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, lett us reee-joice. Hallelujah!”

Analysis: The girl scouts are one of the largest and most well known folk groups, and the scale is reflected in the variety of folklore they have to offer. My sister was a girl scout for a few years, so I thought I was familiar with most of their folklore, but I have never heard this song before. It has a similar structure to other silly folk songs, with the counting and all, but I think it separates itself from others like it in a few unique ways. When performing this song for me, my informant also performed a dance that she said is essential to the song. It was quite the interesting dance with lots of unusual motions, and those combined with the unique delivery and enunciation made it very interesting. I already understood that being a girl scout is an experience that sticks with people forever, but seeing this performance and hearing what my informant had to say about it really reinforced that fact. It goes to show how powerful folk groups really are, and how even something like a silly song can mean so much more.