r/ClassicTAGS

Best Sheriff award will get 1 slice of Aunt Bee's Apple pie and least favorite has the honor of getting some kerosene pickles.

Did you know the song that Ernest T Bass sang for Charlene was a real song? In “The Mountain Wedding”, Old Aunt Mariah was a civil war jump rope song.

Can you imagine two or three little girls or little boys playing in the field or under a tree.
The song had that natural rhythm to it as the rope swung round and round.

Jumped in the fire, jumped in the crack, jumped in the loft. It was about everyday things that would make a rhyme. Even though there was internal unrest in the country, those children were being kids. It was a way to drown out the cannon booms and the rifle shots.

I don’t know whose decision it was to put this song in this episode but today we can all hear Ernest T use the song to court Charlene.

“Charlene, you ain’t never give me the opportunity to court ya properly, I’d like to serenade ya.”

Old aunt Mariah jumped in the fire
Fire too hot, jumped in the pot.
Pot too black, jumped in the crack
Crack too high, jumped in the sky
Sky to blue, jumped in canoe
Canoe to shallow, jumped in the tallow
Tallow too soft, jumped in the loft
Loft too rotten, jumped in the cotton
Cotton so white she stayed there all night.

Now ya want to hear me sing eating goober peas?
Well, that’s another story.

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Susan was 31 when the episode aired. She died at age 58 on May 10, 1990