It was a cough that carried her off

[laulau]

Another random memory this time from my twin sister.

She said she had book as a child (in the 80s) with lots of different rhymes.

The only one she remembers is a page with a woman with a cigarette in her hand with the rhyme "it was a cough that carried her off, it was a coffin they carried her off in".

Anyone remember having the same book?

Many thanks xx

[Heather74]

I dont remember the book, but my Nana use to say the exact same thing to us if we had a coughing fit on us!

[laulau]

Lol

[sixtyten]

"wasn't" the cough..

[Heather74]

She also use to say 'choke up chicken,the ducks in the oven' :o


"wasn't" the cough.. I never noticed that,I automatically read it as wasn't... yep Nan said wasn't too

I always took it as the cough didn't kill him.

[Gothic]

It sounds a lot like a Spike Milligan type book but that actual saying is very old?

[laulau]

It sounds a lot like a Spike Milligan type book but that actual saying is very old?


Yes it is and we are not even sure what the book was (although I do remember it was a children's book). It had lots of different little rhymes and sayings and I believe the one about Salaman Rushdie was in there too (born on Monday, christened on Tuesday etc). Just hoping someone might have had the same book!

[CitizenKeyne]

Did a little serach and found this... not sure its fact or not though

"It wasn't the cough that carried him off," It was the coffin they carried him off in."
This comes from Victorian times. Before the advent of penicillin If you did not look after yourself, a cold went straight to the chest, turned from pneumonia into double pneumonia and you were dead within a fortnight. "It wasn't the cough that carried him off," girls sang over skipping-ropes, "It was the coffin they carried him off in."
Even earlier, from the time of the 'Black Death' a bubonic plague which swept across europe killing millions:
Ring a ring o'roses
A pocketful of posies
ah-tishoo,ah-tishoo
We all fall down.
Posies were scented handkerchiefs which were thought to ward off the disease. I suppose they at least made the smell bearable!
Once you started sneezing (ah-tishoo) however, you would soon fall down (collapse and die)
At least they had a sense of humour

[laulau]

FOUND IT!!!! - well my sister did, she said she had a dream about it!

Spine Tinglers by Ladybird
http://www.arranalexander.co.uk/ekmps/shops/macduffdave/images/spine-tinglers-ladybird-book-poetry-series-851-gloss-hardback-4565-p.jpg

[joybee]

It had lots of different little rhymes and sayings and I believe the one about Salaman Rushdie was in there too (born on Monday, christened on Tuesday etc). Just hoping someone might have had the same book!

It was Solomon Grundy - not Salaman Rushdi ! *lol* it was out YONKS before he bought his clogs !!

Laulau > And congratulations to your sister - well found ! Not like the Members on here not to have acknowledged that !