Thursday, December 6, 2007

Winter Wonderland

It snowed in Chicago this week. It's the first time I've seen real snow in about 13 years, so I've been listening to PlanetDan's Christmas CD and driving around the city.

When I was a child, I had a Christmas Carol songbook and the lyrics to Winter Wonderland had a typo, so for most of my life I thought the lines were:
We'll say 'are you married?'
He'll say 'no man,
but you can do the job
when you're in town'

As a child, I didn't question the lyrics--in the same way that I knew 'bells on Bob's tail' rang, but didn't realize Bob was the horse's name. But as an adult, I wondered exactly what job the minister had in mind. I imagined clandestine scenes in the fellowship hall and behind the baptistery.

It wasn't until a few years ago--when I had a couple of eggnogs in me at a Christmas party and suggested something about snowballing--that someone explained the correct lyrics to me.

4 comments:

Johnny C said...

The snow and cold get really old around the beginning of March. However, chandestine affairs with priests...

Nick Manson said...

Snopes says nothing about a horse named Bob. http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/humor/mondegreens.asp

Anonymous said...

The only thing wrong with your Winter Wonderland lyrics are the pronouns. You just have them switched. What did your fellow partier say the lyrics are?

It's "bobtail" as in short tail.

dan said...

Well, Bob is a damned good name for a horse, nonetheless.