It is quite amazing how sometimes a little bit of something gets caught in my mind and I just can’t get rid of it. Such has recently been the case with a part of a nursery rhyme; i.e., …slide down my cellar door. I could not get the beginning of the rhyme to save my soul.
I had to give up on it just popping into reality. It didn’t seem important enough to head to the library to get some brain peace but I feared I might have to go that route. Thankfully I could use the Internet to help solve my mystery. Even that turned into more information on cellar doors than I wanted.
Who would have thought I would learn that J.R.R. Tolkien thought cellar one of the most beautiful words in the English language. I tried rolling it around over my tongue to see if the double l followed by an r seemed beautiful to me. It was O.K. Beautiful?? Probably not. And I was miles from my original intent. There are countless sites about cellar doors from structural to vineyards to wine cellars to wine bars. I did get quite sidetracked here. Hmmm.
Are there many cellar doors still in existence? Do they still use them? My grandparents who lived in LeRoy had a cellar door. I was never, ever, allowed to set a foot on that drat door much less slide down it. Two flaps on a slope were irrestible to me. I don’t recall it being open except on Monday when the wash was faithfully hauled up the steps to dry on the clothes line. Do people still hang clothes out to dry? How could I be getting so far from the rhyme?
Blessedly the Internet provides link after link.
“Say, say oh playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree.
Shout down my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we’ll be jolly friends
Forever more.”
It goes on a bit in verse to say one dolly had the flu – but I didn’t need or want the rest of it.
Thanks Google, you have provided needed relief. I can sleep tonight. Now about that rain barrel . . . .