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In Johnson Bottom, the chicken house Served more than its usual purpose When we didn't have any chickens It became a good playhouse for us Lena and I scrubbed it inside and out With lots of elbow grease and bleach We cleaned up poop and chicken lice Every nook and cranny we'd reach After all that cleaning and scraping was done We knew our playhouse needed paint Often sneaking a gallon of Mother's whitewash And we never did hear a complaint I remember the good times we had in there Playing store and putting on shows We hung up a curtain and built a stage And dressed in our parents' clothes Once I picked seeds from a bag of rice And planted them in a coffee can Then set them on the roof of the chicken house And endeavored to grow rice like Japan I pictured myself as a rich little girl And was full of dreams and ambition Alas, my rice-growing days soon ended That fantasy never came to fruition In the lane that ran by the back of our house Two women had a knock down fight The boys sat atop the chicken house And got a really good view of the sight It didn't take a lot to make us happy We didn't have much reason to grouse My mind wanders back to the fun we had In that ramshackle chicken house Kathleen McCoy EldridgeŠ May 28, 2006 All Rights Reserved

  "Chicken Dance"
Sequenced by Don Carroll
Midi Studio Consortium