Hurry and Scurry and Flurry and Worry

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Andrea.

I’m calling from West Palm Beach, Florida.

Welcome to the program.

What can we do for you?

Well, I have a little ditty that my father used to say to me when I delayed in getting out of bed,

And I never ask him where it came from or how he learned it.

So I’ll just say it to you guys, and maybe you’ll know its source.

It goes like this.

When in the morning you throw moments away, you can’t make them up in the course of the day.

Or you can hurry and scurry and flurry and worry, but you’ve lost them forever and ever a day.

Oh, that’s nice. And this was about getting the lead out, hurrying up.

Yes, it was like, I’ve asked you to get out of bed and now you’re not doing it.

So he’d sit at the end of the bed and say this to me.

I mean, it would please me. And so I used it also with my children.

But I neglected to ever ask him, you know, if he made that up, if he learned it from his mother or, you know, how he memorized that because he wasn’t a person of many words.

That’s a sweet memory, nonetheless.

Yes.

Yeah. And you’re going to love this story, Andrea, because this is a little ditty or a form of a ditty that appeared in the book Black Beauty.

This was the book that was published in 1877 by Anna Sewell.

And you may know about it.

It’s the autobiography of a horse, basically.

Yes, I have heard of it.

It talks about the idyllic beginnings, you know, in the meadow with his mom.

And then he is sold and he has this very harsh, terrible life hauling handsome cabs in London.

And then afterward, it talks about his retirement from that and how much better that was.

And Anna Sewell wrote this book specifically, she said, to induce kindness and sympathy and

Understanding of horses. And this book turned out to be very, very influential. It turned out to be

One of the best-selling children’s books of all time. It was published five months before her

Death. And so she never really got to know what a tremendous success this book was because it

Changed the way that people thought about horses and animal rights and cruelty to horses.

And there’s a wonderful passage in this book where she talks about a fellow named Jerry Barker,

Who was the horse’s owner for a while. And he was probably the kindest owner that the horse ever had.

And Jerry Barker couldn’t bear for other cab drivers, you know, drivers of horse-drawn cabs,

He couldn’t bear for them to just loiter around and then waste time and then be trying to make up

Time and driving the horse really hard to make up for their idleness. And so he would sing these

Little songs to himself. And one of them went, if you in the morning throw minutes away, you can’t

Pick them up in the course of the day. You may hurry and scurry and flurry and worry. You’ve lost

Them forever, forever in A, which is very, very close to what your dad said. Well, my father was

Raised in northern Nebraska on a cattle ranch. And in the, I guess he was born in about 36.

And he was there until probably 1950 when he married my mom, joined the Air Force, and finished becoming a doctor.

And then he moved down here to Florida.

So maybe he had that book then on the farm?

I bet he did have that book on the farm.

Yeah, it was such a massively popular book for kids that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he read that

And was impressed by the kindness of this guy who owned the horse for a while.

It sold something like 50 million copies, if not more.

Oh, my.

I will definitely have to go get it.

Yeah.

I’ll definitely have to get the book.

It holds up remarkably well, and it’s such a snapshot of time and of language, of course.

I recognize that, but just a really still remarkable book.

Well, I’m so happy that you could lead me to where that ditty was from,

And I really appreciate that because I’d neglected to ask him when he was alive.

And so I’m very pleased to learn that it’s from that book.

Well, I’m so glad that you’re carrying on the memory of it.

Thank you so much, Andrea, for your call.

And you take care now, all right?

Yes, you too.

Thank you so much.

Best wishes.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.