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Short Stuff: Mary Had A Little Lamb · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh. There's chuck and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: this is short stuff when we are talking about a
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  Speaker 1: little nursery rhyme pretty adorable in its nature that you
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: may have heard of before. It's called Mary had a
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  Speaker 1: little lamb. Wait a minute, was was this lamb's fleece
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  Speaker 1: as white as snow? It was? And there was something
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  Speaker 1: remarkable about it, and that wherever Mary went, the lamb
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  Speaker 1: went as well. It sounds like a stalker to me
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. So this is pretty interesting and that
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  Speaker 1: this is controversial. I mean this cute little nursery rhyme
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  Speaker 1: that every English speaking kid on the planet has heard
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  Speaker 1: at one time or another, especially if you're raised in America.
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  Speaker 1: Um may have had Number one a real life origin
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  Speaker 1: and number two. There are two towns in Massachusetts and
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  Speaker 1: New Hampshire where the local historical societies will fight each
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  Speaker 1: other with bike chains and brass knuckles if they run
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  Speaker 1: into one another in public. Yeah, this is really interesting.
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  Speaker 1: In Sterling, Massachusetts, if you go, you're going to see
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  Speaker 1: a little copper statue of a little lamb and it's
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  Speaker 1: um Mary saw yours little lamb, specifically, which she brought
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  Speaker 1: to school in eighteen fifteen. She was a little girl
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  Speaker 1: who uh, and this I guess we should say allegedly
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  Speaker 1: for all this stuff, because there everyone's saying that each
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  Speaker 1: other is wrong. So allegedly, Mary say this little lamb
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  Speaker 1: nursed it back to health overnight, and over a few
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  Speaker 1: days the lamb got much better. And then she was
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  Speaker 1: going to go to school one day, and her brother
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  Speaker 1: Nat said, won't you bring that lamb to school since
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  Speaker 1: you love it so much? And she did bring the
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  Speaker 1: lamb to school, hiding it in a basket under her chair,
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  Speaker 1: And at one point she stands up to take part
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  Speaker 1: in a recitation lesson and the lamb bleats. The teacher laughs.
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  Speaker 1: She takes a lamb outside and kills it. No, just
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: takes a lamb outside and stores it in the shed.
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  Speaker 1: But this caught the idea of a guy named or
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  Speaker 1: the eye of a guy named John roll Stone. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he was an older boy who I guess was visiting
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  Speaker 1: the schoolhouse where all this took place that day. He
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  Speaker 1: was on his way off to Harvard, and he died
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  Speaker 1: shortly after of tuberculosis. But before that he wrote a
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  Speaker 1: poem through several lines, just basically what everybody knows from
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  Speaker 1: Mary had a little lamb. Um. Supposedly that night he
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  Speaker 1: was so taken by this thing, by this event, came
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  Speaker 1: back the next day on horseback and handed Mary the
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  Speaker 1: little poem he wrote for her. And Mary Sawyer went
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  Speaker 1: on for the rest of her life as Mary the
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  Speaker 1: girl with the little lamb that she'd nurse back to health.
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  Speaker 1: And these the source of the famous nursery rhyme Mary
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  Speaker 1: had a little lamb. Yeah, And it's important to note
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  Speaker 1: that he wrote but three stanzas of that poem. And
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  Speaker 1: I think he was just thought it was cute. I
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  Speaker 1: think it's an adorable story that not only did she
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  Speaker 1: nurse this little lamb and take it to school, but this,
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  Speaker 1: you know, rising freshman at Harvard, was so smitten with
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: this whole thing on his little visit to the school
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  Speaker 1: that he wrote a poem about it. That's right, it's adorable.
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  Speaker 1: Then he died of tuberculosis later that year. Point that
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  Speaker 1: out again and so he um he So John Rawlstone
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  Speaker 1: and Mary Sawyer are the source of the inspiration and
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  Speaker 1: the basis of that nursery roome. Mary had a little lamb.
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  Speaker 1: As far as Sterling, Massachusetts is concerned. But if you
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  Speaker 1: uh drive a little further north, about ninety miles north
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  Speaker 1: into New Hampshire, southwest New Hampshire, you come across the
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  Speaker 1: town of Newport, UM, you will get a totally different
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  Speaker 1: story that their their position is basically that Mary Sawyer
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  Speaker 1: was a lying old lady who lied her whole life
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  Speaker 1: and made up this fantastic tale, and that it was
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  Speaker 1: really Sarah Joseph Hale, who was a native of Newport,
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  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, UM, who was very famous for setting up
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  Speaker 1: the first Thanksgiving in the United States, UM, like as
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  Speaker 1: a as a national holiday. She's the one that made
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  Speaker 1: that happen. UM. That she's the one who wrote Mary
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  Speaker 1: had a little lamb, Right, And I think we should
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  Speaker 1: take a break. Uh. And before we do that, I
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  Speaker 1: want to point out that Josh did not misspeak. Her
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  Speaker 1: middle name was Josepha and not Joseph or Joseph. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it just sounded a little funny and people might think,
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  Speaker 1: why did Josh spice that one up? But a little
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  Speaker 1: mustard on. So we'll come back and explain more about
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  Speaker 1: her story and where Henry Ford figures in right after this.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So, Sarah Josepha Josepha Hale, I like Josepha
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  Speaker 1: but I hadn't considered Josepha. That's a good one too.
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  Speaker 1: That sounds really biblical, Like she she suddenly just grew
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  Speaker 1: a beard without a mustache, right, you know what I mean? Yes, Like,
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  Speaker 1: come to me, Josepha and let me put oils on
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  Speaker 1: your feet. Right, That's exactly what I was thinking. Weird.
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  Speaker 1: Remember what congressman was it that literally anointed? It was Ashcroft?
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  Speaker 1: I think, wasn't it? Was it? Yeah, what a bizarre
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: time it was. I think it was. It was Ashcroft.
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  Speaker 1: You're totally right. I think he also sang some weird
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  Speaker 1: patriotic song about the eagle flying high around the same
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: time he got some bad press. Everybody was like, wow,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you're bonkers, buddy, oh man, I missed that guy. He
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  Speaker 1: was fun fund for the news cycle. He really was, alright.
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  Speaker 1: So Sarah Josepha Hale moved to Boston in eight She
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  Speaker 1: was a poet and a writer, and she was actually
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the editor of the very first women's magazine in the
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  Speaker 1: US called Gotti's Ladies Book. And it was here in
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  Speaker 1: Boston that she met a man named Lowell Mason, who
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: was a musician and composer, who said, you know what
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: if we get some of these poems and set them
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  Speaker 1: to music. They would be called songs, and we can
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  Speaker 1: use these in schools to make a little kid's good
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  Speaker 1: moral kids. When I think of Lowell Um, this kind
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of folk musician, children's music study proponent guy. Have you
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: ever seen that Mr. Show where David Crosses, like the
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  Speaker 1: the guy who sculpted the little the little body that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: he moves from Appalachian folk art. That guy, That's who
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  Speaker 1: I think of when I think of this guy, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just kind of weird and hapless and like out of
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  Speaker 1: it and um, like his whole focus is learning to
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  Speaker 1: to to get music into schools for children and just
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, but it's really stuck in there.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: You know. Our buddy Scott Ackerman wrote for Mr. Show.
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  Speaker 1: It was kind of his entree into the entertainment industry.
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  Speaker 1: And he does, yeah, he does a spot on impression
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  Speaker 1: of Bob Odenkirk. Oh yeah, Oh it's great. I gotta
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  Speaker 1: see that. It's very funny. Alright, So Mason and Hale
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  Speaker 1: are writing uh songs together. They put fifteen poems to
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  Speaker 1: music called Poems for Our Children, and uh, we should
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  Speaker 1: point out that the original tune that they wrote for
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  Speaker 1: her version of Mary had a Little Lamb was not
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  Speaker 1: the familiar melody that we know that came on later.
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  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, apparently that comes from a British song
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  Speaker 1: that goes, um, merrily we roll along, roll along, roll
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  Speaker 1: along merrily, we roll along over the dark blue sea.
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  Speaker 1: Hey nice, Oh, thank you, thank you. I've practiced pretty
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  Speaker 1: extensively for it was on key um, I'm a little
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  Speaker 1: tone deaf, was a little pitchy, but it was fine.
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  Speaker 1: I'll go with it was fine, No, it was good.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, that came on later. The original melody. I
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  Speaker 1: don't even think we know that, do we No? But
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: if you can get your hands on Juvenile Liar leer
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  Speaker 1: l y r e that that book that it was
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  Speaker 1: originally in, I think the notes are in there. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: it sounds like in a Gotta Da Vida, that's your
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  Speaker 1: go to. So Mary Sawyer going back to her the
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  Speaker 1: little girl who allegedly actually nurse this little lamb who
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  Speaker 1: followed her around and stalked her. She said, you know what,
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  Speaker 1: those first three verses of your poem, miss Hale, is
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  Speaker 1: exactly like the ones that John roll Stone wrote about
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  Speaker 1: my true story. What is up with that? Yeah? I
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  Speaker 1: guess she just thought that somehow, Sarah Josepha Hale Um
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  Speaker 1: had gotten her hands somehow on this this poem that
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  Speaker 1: John Rolstone had had written for and just expanded on
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  Speaker 1: that um. And Sarah Joseph Hale was like, no, that's
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  Speaker 1: not it at all. I made this whole thing up
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  Speaker 1: from scratch, using strictly my imagination. I've never heard of
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  Speaker 1: you or your delightful little story from your childhood about
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  Speaker 1: the lamb h sounds totally made up by the way, right,
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  Speaker 1: And so that this was like, so now you had
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  Speaker 1: two upstanding women, Sarah Joseph Hale, the founder of the
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  Speaker 1: the American holiday Thanksgiving, and Mary Sawyer, who went on
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  Speaker 1: to become the matron of her local hospital. We're basically
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  Speaker 1: saying that one another was lying without saying that one
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  Speaker 1: another was lying, and two towns like reputations were on
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  Speaker 1: the line. Yeah, and they they actually, as older ladies,
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  Speaker 1: signed sworn statements saying that what they were saying was
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  Speaker 1: true and correct. And uh, it kind of went on
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  Speaker 1: like this for a little while. And I promised Henry
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  Speaker 1: Ford and here we're going to deliver, because in automobile
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  Speaker 1: magnate Henry Ford got involved and was firmly in the
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  Speaker 1: Mary Sawyer camp. Um. He was just a fan of hers,
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  Speaker 1: I guess, because he bought the original frame from that
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  Speaker 1: red schoolhouse and moved it to Sudbury, where he owned
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  Speaker 1: an inn. And he wrote a book about this, called
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  Speaker 1: The Story of Mary and her Little Lamb. I find
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  Speaker 1: that him moving the end to Sudbury confuses this story
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  Speaker 1: tremendously because it just takes two small towns and adds
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  Speaker 1: a third one unnecessarily if you ask me, sure you know.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, Henry Ford wrote a sixty page book just
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  Speaker 1: basically touting Mary Sawyer's story, much to the chagrin of
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  Speaker 1: the town of Newport, New Hampshire and its historical society. UM.
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  Speaker 1: And to this day they will say, like Henry Ford
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: made a great car. Um. I don't know how he
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  Speaker 1: would be really as in a story, and so you know,
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  Speaker 1: his opinion doesn't count for much. What I want to
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  Speaker 1: know is what was on the other fifty six pages, right?
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  Speaker 1: You know, couldn't have taken more than four to tell
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  Speaker 1: this little story. No, I know, I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: he he talked about. And I think my my joke
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  Speaker 1: bone is broken because I can't come up with anything
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  Speaker 1: stupid to add, well, it depends on There are very
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  Speaker 1: much two camps here and to this day, people that
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  Speaker 1: defend Hale, I mean people that defense Sawyers are like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this is a sweet, sweet girl who had
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  Speaker 1: the sweet story. Why would she make this up and
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  Speaker 1: tell it her whole life? And Hail defenders were like, well,
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  Speaker 1: why would she just conjure up this poem out of
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  Speaker 1: thin air? Or I mean, why would she copy it
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  Speaker 1: and claim she conjured it from thin air? Because they like,
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  Speaker 1: she wouldn't have even known about this poem? Yeah, she
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  Speaker 1: just from what I can tell, she doesn't seem like
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  Speaker 1: the type who would have committed plagiarism and then stuck
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  Speaker 1: to the lie her entire life. Yeah, so mystery. It's
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  Speaker 1: a mystery, and even Henry Ford couldn't solve it. But
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  Speaker 1: to end this one because we don't really have a
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  Speaker 1: resolution to it. There is um Like the the full
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  Speaker 1: poem by Sarah Joseph Hale. It ends pretty cutely because
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  Speaker 1: she's talking about how um everyone wanted to know why
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  Speaker 1: the lamb loved Mary so much, and in the poem
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  Speaker 1: it says, well, it's because Mary loves the lamb back
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  Speaker 1: and then it ends with and you, each gentle animal,
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  Speaker 1: and confidence may bind and make them follow at your will,
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  Speaker 1: if only you are kind. And then a sweet thing
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  Speaker 1: to teach little kids be kind of animals, and you
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  Speaker 1: can basically be the boss of them. Yes, and you
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: will never be a serial killer. That's right, because you're
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: kind to them rather than tortures of them. That's right. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that's it for short stuff. Everybody, we're out. Stuff you
• 12:54
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• 12:56
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