Old Pod-Auger Times

I’ll sing to you of the good ole time
When people were honest and true,
Before their brains were rattled and crazed
By everything strange and new.
When every man was a working man
And earned his livelihood,
And the women were smart and industrious
And lived for their families’ good.
In the days of Andrew Jackson
And of old Granddaddy Grimes,
When a man wasn’t judged by the clothes he wore
In old pod-auger times.

Young girls didn’t hug nor kiss their fellows
Whenever they came to court,
Nor paddle around on roller skates,
Nor pound a pianoforte.
They kept their men at a good arm’s length
And made them know their place,
And they played upon washboards and “kittles” and brooms
With amazing skill and grace.
They didn’t lay abed ‘til eleven A.M. –
Got up in the morning betimes,
And they didn’t elope with the old man’s coachman
In old pod-auger times.

Young fellows, they loaf about the street
And struggle with bad cigars,
They stay out late when they should be at home
With their daddies and their mas.
They wear tight trousers, likewise tight boots,
And guzzle lager beer,
And when their daddies foot up the bills
They find them pesky dear.
When my old men were farmer’s boys
We’d neither dollars nor dimes,
We worked from daylight till candlelight
In old pod-auger times.

Oh, the young men didn’t drive fast horses
Nor gamble with cards and dice,
They didn’t run church lotteries,
For it wan’t considered nice.
But now they gamble and drink mean rum
And lead hypocritical lives,
And wives run away with each other’s husbands
And husbands with other men’s wives.
Folks didn’t have delirium tremens
Nor perpetuate horrible crimes,
For the cider was good and the rum was pure
In old pod-auger times.

#And what do we have today
IPods, cell phones and laptops
And kids surfing the internet
And shopping ‘til they drop
And texting on cell phones
All hours of the day and night
And driving around in Japanese cars
And giving their parents fright
And going to raging parties
Drinking lite beer, rum and wine
And cannabis was a medicine
In old pod auger times

A pod-auger is a bit to bore trees to make wood pipes for water.

#The last verse was written by Alan Greenleaf for the Bicentennial Celebration.  He song the original song and his verse for the celebration.

This song was found in Vermont Folk Songs, the book with the oldest acquisition date found in our collection prior to the Bicentennial Collection.  It was added to our collection in 1938.  Most of our books were destroyed in the 1959 fire, so finding one acquired prior to the fire is unusual.