[Roger Slater]

John, I learned a very similar version, with L3 being "I have a shotgun and it is loaded". And in another verse, L3 was "if you don't get off, I'll blow your head off."

[John Isbell]

Yes, I’d forgotten the get off / head off rhyme! Some imagination went into that doggerel.

Cheers,
John

[James Brancheau]

As a kid, I don't think we had a version for that. Or maybe the diarrhea song just drowns everything else out.

[John Isbell]

Yes, the diarrhea song is compelling. We sang This Land Is My Land in Cleveland in the early 70s. There was also a Popeye song I remember.

Cheers,
John

Oh, and from that time, I think, Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school. Though I may have been older than ten by then.

[James Brancheau]

Haha, yeah, Mine eyes have seen the glory-- we did do something with that, but hell if I can remember (Toledo, late 70s).

[Roger Slater]

Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the burning of the school,
we have tortured every teacher,
we have broken every rule;
and now we're marching down the hall
to kill the principal,
as truth goes marching on.

[John Isbell]

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school
We have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule
We are going to hang the principal tomorrow after school
The youth goes marching on ...

I do like after school as a touch there. Interesting (maybe coincidental) that these were sung in Ohio.

Cheers,
John

Update: cross-posted with Roger’s slightly different version.

[Julie Steiner]

[Irving Berlin] would change the words of popular songs to naughty lyrics, because the bar clientele loved that.

So we're sorta still on topic.

[James Brancheau]

There's a germ of a poem in those child versions. Not that I'll probably write it, but something's there. Yeah, John, Ohio's a strange state.

[James Brancheau]

Well, Julie, I resurrected it, so, in this case (the only case), I don't feel so bad about it. But, you know, the thread can continue as intended. (Just in time too. I was about to get into how the diarrhea song changed my life.)