She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

[ A ]

	This two-stanza fragment [?] is from the Hubert Canfield collection, gathered in 1926.  No source was given.

Around her neck she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore in in Decmeber, and in the month of May,
And when they asked her why the hell she wore it,
She said 'twas for her lover who was far, far away.

Chorus:
Far away!  Far away!  Far away!  Far away!
She said it's for her lover who was far, far, away.

Around the block she pushed a baby carriage,
She pushed it in December, and in the month of May,
And when they asked her why the hell she pushed it,
She said 'twas for her lover who was far, far away.

[ B ]

	As former Oberlin undergraduate Rowland Berthoff noted in a letter, this song "hardly qualifies as bawdy now, but seemed so" both at school prior to the second world war and later in the army.

Around her neck she wore a yellow ribbon;
She wore it in the springtime and in the merry month of May.
[Or: She wore it in the winter and the merry month of May.] 
And if you asked her why the hell she wore it,
She wore it for a Williams man [soldier] who was far, far
	away.

Around her leg she wore a purple garter;
She wore it in the springtime in the merry month of May.
And if you asked her why the hell she wore it,
She wore it for a Williams man who was far, far away.

Down the street she wheels a baby carriage;
She wheels it in the springtime in the merry month of May.
Amd if you ask her why the hell she wheels it,
She wheels it for a Williams man who is far, far away.

	Contributed by Rowland Berthoff, professor of history emeritus, at Washington University, St. Louis.  In a letter to the editor on January 25, 1995, Berthoff wrote "it was familiar to me both in collge and in the amry.  Why it was always attached to Williams College I have no idea."

[ C ]

	At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in 1986, writes K.T. Hoke, a variant of the song was used as a marching cadence.

Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon,
She wore in in the springtime and the merry month of May,
And if you asked her why the heck she wore it,
She wore it for that private who was far, far away.
	Far away, far away.
	She wore it for that private who was far, far away.

Around the block, she pushed a baby carriage,
She pushed it in the springtime and the merry month of May,
And if you asked her why the hell she pushed it,
She pushed it for that private who was far, far away.
	Far away, far away.
	She pushed it for that private who was far, far away.

Behind the door, her daddy kept a shotgun,
He kept it in the springtime and the merry month of May,
And if you asked him why the fuck he kept it,
He kept it for that private who was far, far away.
	Far away, far away.
	He kept it for that private who was far, far away.