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Heavy, Heavy Hangover

Clint from Dallas, Texas, recalls a peculiar family tradition for giving birthday presents to a child. A giver would hold a gift over the child’s head and recite: Heavy heavy hangover / Thy poor head / What do you wish this donor? The child was then supposed to name some sort of fanciful present for the giver, such as a unicorn or a bag of diamonds. At that point, the birthday child would be given the gift. This tradition seems to have originated in a kissing game from the 1850s. There are many versions of this rhyme, some of which appear in videos on YouTube. This is part of a complete episode.

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