DId you sing "Do Your Ears Hang Low" as a child?

Tweet

One of the songs I learned in childhood but do not teach to my child piano and guitar students, nor in preschools, is "Do Your Ears Hang Low." Did you sing this one in childhood? As I remember it, it goes: Do your ears hang low Do they wobble too and fro Can you tie them in a knot Can you tie them in a bow Can you throw them o'er your shoulder like a continental soldier Do you ears hang low. Of course, the imagery makes young children laugh, and they are likely to say "Do that one again!" In my later years (I was maybe eleven) I learned that there are more verses to the song, and I was jealous when I heard children from another school singing those verses. Only the most vulgar of MyLotters will believe me when I say that there is an edgier version of the song that may have been sung by WWI soldiers when going off to battle. Of course, as a gentleman, I did not sing that version with a bunch of pubescent boys at Summer Camp when I was thirteen, But I DID hear it somewhere. For no particular reason, I found myself singing this song (I forget which version) as I was returning from Safeway, where I bought a banana, a sorrano pepper, and other necessities. I then found myself wondering which version of the song came first, the children's version or the soldiers' version I discovered, after a Google search, that the jury is still out on that question. Did you learn this song in childhood? Do you think I should relax what my dear friend @Maluse calls my "Puritanical" ways and teach this song to the children I teach music to? Perhaps their fathers would sing hardily along with me, yielding further joy for the children. Here is a link, for those who want to do their own research on the matter. Photo is of Eeyore, who fell six feet from a bookshelf onto my AR ES-1 turntable during a 4.1 earthquake here.