Billy Boy- Early (OK) 1937 Botkin; Play-Party
[From B.A. Botkin, The American Play-Party Song; 1937. No date given. Botkins notes and play-party directions follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Billy Boy: For play-party use as a dramatic dialogue game, see Gardner (Michigan), JALF 33 (two texts); Wolford (Indiana), PP. 24-25.
Billy Boy- John V. Early; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1937,
I Have you found you a wife, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Have you found you a wife, bonny Billy?
I've found me a wife, she's the joy of my life,
Yet she's a young thing and cannot earn a living.
(Or: She's young thing and could not leave her mother.)
2 Did she put you to bed, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did she Put You to bed, bonny Billy?
She put me to bed with a bump on my head,
She's a young thing and cannot earn a living.
3 Did she bake you a pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did she bake You a pie, bonny Billy?
Yes, she gave me a pie with a hit in the eye,
She's a young thing and cannot earn a living.
Directions. "The children form a circle with a chosen child in the center. The fun of the game was for the chorus to give Billy a 'hot one' in the way of a question, and Billy in return was supposed to ably give back an answer funny and thrilling, to the merriment of our gang."
Variants by Hattie Bell Bethea, Marion, S. C.; Jane Bowman, Pauls Valley, Garvin County; Mary Virginia Maloy, Norman, Cleveland County