GREAT GRANDDAD

This is actually my Great great grandparents William Kenner and Polly Hawkins who I want to use to illustrate this old cowboy song. They are the parents of several children one of whom was Philander, who in turn was the parent of many children of which my grandmother Ingie was one. One of her eleven children was my mother Juanita who only had two children, my brother and myself.

GREAT GRANDDAD

Great granddad, when the land was young barred his door with a wagon tongue.

The times were rough and the wilderness mocked,

and he said his prayers with his shotgun cocked;

He was a citizen tough and grim,

danger was like "duck soup" to him,

But his great grandson now falls asleep and fears no harm from the darkness deep,

for his great granddaddy fought and won and tamed the land for his great grandson.
Great granddaddy was a busy man, he cooked his food in a frying pan,

picked his teeth with a hunting knife, and wore the same suit all his life.

He ate cornbread and bacon fat, but great grandson would starve on that.

Great grandad was gaunt with toil, grimed and seamed with sun and soil,

But great grandson is fat and clean and rides to work in a Limousine.

Twenty-five children came to bless great granddad's home in the wilderness.

Laugh at that statement if you can, but great granddad was a busy man.

Twenty-five children, and they grew stout and tall on bacon, too.

Slept on the floor with the dogs and cats, shopped in the woods for a coonskin hat .

Freud was a mystery, so was Jazz, on giving their parents a scornful razz.

If they got fresh with great granddad, he tanned their hides with a hickory gad.

He raised them rough, but he raised them well,

and if they took hold of the ways of hell he filled them full of the fear of God,

and flailed their pants with an old ram-rod.

They grew strong of heart, and strong of hand,

The firm foundation of our land.

Twenty-five boys -- but his great grandson

to save his life can't manage one!

unknown author