What Do The Country Folk Do?
October 17, 2013
"What do the simple folk do?" So goes the line from the musical Camelot. Non-agricultural folk sometimes sound a bit like a gaggle of King Arthurs and Queen Guineveres when they expound on agricultural topics. A shameless parody, we'll rechristen King Arthur as City Guy, and Queen Guinevere as City Gal. With apologies to Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music).
The musical question:
What Do The Country Folk Do?
CITY GAL
What do the country folk do
To help them escape when they're blue?
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The cowboy who is roping, the cowgirl who still hopes
The rancher who is calving; for a calf he gropes
When they're beleaguered and plagued
These folk do not seem to be fazed
However do they muddle through and cope with their lot?
Oh what do country folk do we do not?
CITY GUY
It's hard to explain for they don't really tell
They lift their doldrums in quite skillful ways
When the weather's bad, they ponder things to quell
And pondering sure lightens up their days
And that's what country folk do
So they say CITY GAL
What else do the country folk do
To keep up courage and stay true
The youngsters and the grown folk
Who mosey to and fro
Have ways known to country folk
We town folk don't know
When down in the dumps begins
What keeps country folk wearing grins?
What puzzling rural custom keeps country on the go
Oh, what do country folk do?
Do you know?
CITY GUY
Once I saw a cowboy riding on his horse
Singing in a voice of twangy sighs
When I asked, he said that singing to the cows
Was soothing to the bovine beasts somehow
And that's what country folk do
I surmise
CITY GAL
What else do country folk do?
They must have a routine or two
It appears that every day they work in common dirt
While city folk don't soil our hands for it might hurt
How then, I wonder, do they
Manage to keep goblins at bay
Do they have country cunning that you haven't mentioned yet
Oh, what do country folk do to forget? CITY GUY
Often, so I'm told, they work and work some more
They irrigate and harvest hay and fence
They calve the cows; herd the sheep on the ranch
The effort is astounding to behold
And that's what country folk do
So I'm told
CITY GAL
What else do the country folk do
To help them get past being blue? CITY GUY
They sit around and laugh at what city folk would do
And that's what country folk do
CITY GAL
Oh, no, really?
CITY GUY
I have it on the best authority.
BOTH
Yes, that's what country folk do! ❖
