MS used to go to summer camp every year. Her camps had many interesting traditions and funny pieces of folklore that she often brings back and performs for me. Her favorite pieces are the songs, of which there are many. Here is one:

She sat on a hillside and strummed her guitar
strummed her guitar, strummed her guitar
She sat on a hillside and strummed her guitar
strummed her gui-ta-a-a-ar

Oom, plucky, plucky, oom, plucky, plucky, oom, pluck, pluck, pluck, ZING!
Oom, plucky, plucky, oom, plucky, plucky, oom, pluck, pluck, pluck, ZING!

He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar
He said that he loved her but, oh! How he lied
They were to be married but somehow she died
He went to her funeral but just for the ride

He went to her grave site and laughed ’til he cried
The grave stone fell over and squish-squash he died
She went up to heaven and flittered and flied
He went down below and sizzled and fried
The moral of this song is: never tell lies

M explains the song as being a “harsh lesson about love.” She elaborates, “But really it was just some fun thing we all sang around the campfire.” I commented on the graphicness of piece. M response was, “That’s what I love about it. We didn’t screw around at my camp. Everyone thinks girls’ summer camp is like pretty princesses and stuff, but no, we were intense and gross. We sang about death.” She laughs.

Every time she performs this song for me she has a lot of enthusiasm. There are very specific hand gestures that accompany the song as well. M explains how nothing is written down for the song. Each year the older girls pass all the traditions, songs, and stories down to the younger kids by singing the songs together.

The song tells an entertaining story. The contents of the story, as well as the melody, aid in memorizing the lyrics. In this sense, a folk song is really just a folk tale. There are similar elements and tools that aid in performance. For example, each line is repeated many times (it doesn’t show this in all of the lyrics above for brevity’s sake).

Furthermore, one can see how this song in particular would be popular for a girls’ camp. The story is about a man getting his come-uppance for lying to the girl about being in love. She goes to Heaven, but he goes down to Hell. The song is empowering to women. It doesn’t condemn the girl for whimsically falling in love. In fact she still goes to Heaven. The man, however, burns for lying about love. That is the sin. The last line even reinforces this with “The moral of this song is: never tell lies.”

A published version of this song, along with many other classic camp songs, can be found in Jack Horntip’s Camp Meriwether Camp Song Book.