Really Old Songs

When I was a young child, every weekend my Mother, Father, and I would go to my Grandma’s home in a little railroad town along the Allegheny River. Some of the first memories I have of those trips is getting the big old 78 rpm records out and playing them on the Victrola. It wasn’t the kind with the big horn where the sound came out, but a larger upright unit where the top opened up to put the record on and the crank was on the side. Later, they got a large floor model radio that had a 78 rpm turn table on the top that would play one record at a time.

One of those songs that I listened to was “Chickery Chick”. This version was done by a big band with what sounded like a girl’s quartet or trio. The words to that song’s chorus keep running through my mind. I can even remember the tune. Here are the words:

“Oh! - Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la
Check-a-la romery in a banaika
Bollika, wollika, can’t you see
Chickery chick is me?”

I don’t know when that song was recorded, but those records were old then and I was only around 4 to 6 years old at the time and now I am 67.

Back in those days, everyone liked music and played an instrument or sang or both. Another song that keeps going through my head was one that I heard my Mother’s family singing a lot back at the same time I heard the above song. This song (I looked it up on the internet) was a World War 1 song.

Its name is “K-K-K Katy” and the only part of it I remember is the chorus which went like this:

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the c-cowshed,
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.

These two songs are still in my memory after all those years. Maybe it is because there was a happy feeling that went along with the songs and the experiences at the time I heard them.

Does any one else remember these two songs?

Do you have any really old songs that stick in your head?