The Cambric Shirt- McFarland (OK) 1950 Moores B
[From Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Moores; 1964.
R. Matteson 2014]
B. The Cambric Shirt- as sung by Mrs. Mary Ann McFarland of Tulsa. Mrs. McFarland, visiting in the home of her friend Mrs. Daley, remarked when she heard a recording of text A: "Why, I know that song! But you'd never know it by the color it wears." The two, both of whom are blind, often sing as they spend evenings together, but they had never thought to include The Cambric Shirt.
My mother made me a cambric shirt,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
Without one stitch of needlework,
With a kee-da-lope, a ca-da-lope,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-fl ink.
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
She washed it out in an old dry well,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-fl om-a-nee!
Where water never was since Adam fell,
With a kee-da-lope, a ca-da-lope,
Flum-a-lum-a- flink-tom-a-flink,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
She hung it out on yondos thorn,
Flum-a-lum-a-fl ink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
Which ne'er had bloomed since Adam was born,
With a kee-da-lope, a ca-da-lope,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flink,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
My father gave me an acre of land,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
Between the seashore and the sand.
With a kee-da-lope, a ca-da-lope,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-fl ink,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
I planted it out in peppery corn,
Flum-a-lum-a-fl ink-tom-a-fl om-a-nee!
I plowed it out with an old sheep's horn,
With a kee-da-lope, a ca-dalope,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-fl ink,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
Now my song is at an end,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!
I hope I've not offended one,
With a kee-da-lope, a ca-da-lope,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flink,
Flum-a-lum-a-flink-tom-a-flom-a-nee!