Today we’re going to ride the rails…the railroad that is! We are on a bullet train from Tokyo to Kitakata, which is in northern Japan. We’re heading to our daughter’s house! And yes, there is something exciting about taking a long journey on the train! Watching the scenery change, the people choosing by, and the buildings transform forms eh big city to a small farming community…it’s a wonderful adventure!
I utilized a stencil to make the shapes on this one, the wrote the lyrics with three different pens. The song is sung as a round, so the words are jumbled up on purpose to illustrate that multiple people are singing at the same time. This is a traditional railroad song, one which I learned somewhere in grade school. When you start singing it, people usually chime in on the chorus…
I’ve been working on the railroad
– Traditional Railroad Song
All the live long day
I’ve been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away.
Don’t you hear the whistle blowing?
Rise up so early in the morn!
Don’t you hear the foreman shouting?
Dinah, blow your horn!
Repeat three times:
Dinah won’t you blow, Dinah won’t you blow
Dinah won’t you blow your hooooooooorn?
Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone’s in the kitchen I know, oh, oh oh!
Someone’s on the kitchen with Dinah
Strumming’ on the old banjo!
Fee, Fi Fiddly, aye oh!
Fee Fye Fiddly, aye, oh!
Fee Fye Fiddly, aye, oh!
Strumming on the old Banjo!
Whew! That was a lot of woods for today…and yet such fun! I remember singing this one loud and louder during family vacations, as we traveled South to see my Grandparents in Alabama. It was fun and funny – especially when someone made a mistake.
I don’t know when it happened, yet somewhere along our lives we stopped singing together in the car. I’m going to chalk that one up to puberty! What self respecting teenage boy wants to sing with his family in the car!!! I know have a grand daughter..so as she grows up maybe we can revive the tradition!
Have a great day..let’s sign together again tomorrow!
