What kind of sick sadist are you, Jack?! And what kind of child's poem is that?!
That is my firs—err, I mean, those are my first questions.
But I'm not done with you yet, Jack. I have more questions about this poem, Jack. Deeper questions. Like this one: What was this peanut doing sitting on a railroad track? And what's such a sweet, innocent, lovable peanut like him doing on a railroad track in the middle of nowhere? (Yes, in my mind, I saw the track as being a rather empty place, maybe on the outskirts of town; in any case, we all know that the tracks are never in the safe areas of town!) And why was his heart "all a-flutter"? Huh?? Why was he running, anyways? I mean, my first thought was always that he had just run a race... but then why would he be on the tracks?! So maybe he wasn't running in a race... maybe he was running away from someone!
A-ha! I knew it! He wasn't so innocent after all!
Well, at least that settles the question of what he was doing around train tracks.
But it doesn't answer my next question: Who was he running from? In my mind, I seem to think that there are lots of train tracks in Clint Eastwood movies. Maybe he was running from Clint Eastwood?
Ohhhhhh, man! That is not good news for him! Running from Clint Eastwood is never a good position to be in!
I just have a couple more questions, Jack.
First, why would you paint this picture of this innocent, lovable peanut, taking a casual breather on the nearest railroad track, and get us all attached to him, and then, all of a sudden... BOOM!!! He's dead. Dead! "Toot toot! Peanut butter!" eh, Jack? Why would you do something so cruel, cold, and morbid in a children's poem?? I was probably traumatized for life by that heart-wrenching poem in ways that we won't even know until my therapy sessions thirty years from now!
Oh, but wait, I almost forgot... he wasn't so innocent and lovable, was he? To the casual observer, perhaps indeed, and that seems to be the general first impression. But obviously I have debunked that myth! So why would you try and get us all attached, even in just two lines, to this peanut, when really he's evil to the core!!? Why??
Although, I guess in the end, it's not so bad that he got hit by a train, killed, and turned into peanut butter. I mean, yeah, it was sad and all. But we all know there was no was he was getting away from Clint Eastwood and his .357 Magnum six-shooter, anyways.
He was peanut butter before he even started running. Him and everyone else that has ever tried to run from Clint Eastwood.
~written by (in my mind, at least) Jack Pruletsky~
A peanut sat on a railroad track
His heart was all a-flutter
Around the bend came the Number 10
Toot toot! Peanut butter!
2 comments:
The peanut's heart was all a-flutter because he was in love. He went out in the mountains to write a love song for his bride-to-be. It was an area with rough terrain and steep slopes, but the view was breathtaking, so he sat down on the ony semi-level place around....the railroad tracks. While he was sitting there writing his love song and taking in the view, he failed to notice a train (number 10 to be exact) coming around the bend. The children's folk song was actually a ballad. It was written to remind people of this lovely peanut and to warn them about the dangers of railroad tracks
That's really interesting Jack - was looking up the song myself as I remember singing it in primary school as a young girl. Thanks for that.
We had slightly different words, from memory:
Peanuts sitting on the railway track, their hearts were all a flutter. Along came a train, from around the bend ... toot toot peanut butter!
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