Digital Tradition Mirror

I Love a Sausage

I Love a Sausage

     1.
     I love a sausage, a big boloney sausage,
     If ye saw it ye wad fancy it yersel,
     If ye fry it with an ingin,
     Ye can hear the sausage singin',
     "Mary, my Scots Bluebell".

     2.
     I had a sausage, a bonny, bonny sausage,
     I put it in the oven for my tea.
     I went down to the cellar
     To get the salt and pepper,
     And the sausage ran after me.

     3.
     I love a cookie
     A Co'perative cookie
     A haill big cookie to masel:
     Ye squeeze oot the cream
     And hear the cookie scream--
     Mary, my Scots Bluebell!

     I love a cabbage,
     A Co'perative cabbage
     A haill big cabbage to masel:
     Ye cut oot the hairt
     And gie it to your tairt
     Mary, my Scots bluebell!

     I love an aipple
     A Co'perative aipple
     A haill big aipple to masel:
     Ye cut it up in qua'ers
     And gie it to the squa'ers--
     Mary, my Scots bluebell!

     I love an ingan
     A Co'perative ingan
     A haill big ingan to masel:
     Ye fry it wi' a sausage
     And hear the ingan singan'--
     Mary, my Scots bluebell!

     4.
     I love a cookie, a Co-operative cookie,
     Tho' ye cannae get near it for the smell;
     If ye spread it wi' some syrup,
     Ye'll hear the syrup chirrup,
     "Mary, ma Scots Bluebell."

     I love a sausage, a Co-operative sausage,
     Tho' ye cannae get near it for the smell;
     If ye fry it wi' an ingin,
     Ye'll hear the ingin singin',
     "Mary, ma Scots Bluebell."

     I love some breid, some Co-operative breid,
     Tho' ye cannae get near it for the smell;
     If ye spread it wi' some butter,
     Ye'll hear the butter mutter,
     "Mary, ma Scots Bluebell."
     ________________________________________________________

     (1) Collected by the ed. from Bill McGinnes, Salt
     Spring, B.C., July 8, 1989 (aged 89; from his mother,
     Ayr).
     (2) Opies Lore (1959), 92, from a correspondent, current
     forty years before, "not long after the original song
     was written".  Nowadays used for "dipping".
     (3) Ritchie Singing Street (1964), from Edinburgh, mid-
     forties. Co'perative is the normal way of pronouncing
     "Co-operative", shortened sometimes to (bisyllabic) "Co-
     op (shop)", or even "the Co'"; qua'ers = "quarters",
     squa'ers = "squatters" (pronounced with characteristic
     glottal stop).  The latter were poor folk who set up
     house in whatever accommodation presented itself--waste
     ground, abandoned tenements, etc.--victims of the acute
     housing shortage after the war.  Stanza 3 in Opies Lore
     (1959) 92, from Dean Orphanage, Edinburgh, 1955.
     (4) Collected in Glasgow, 1961.  I spell the full word
     here to avoid confusion.

MS
oct96

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!