When we were kids we used to sing this song, to the tune of an old British Army Marching tune (I thought it was the Gay Gordons but I was wrong and will try to find it!)
“Aunty Mary,
Had a Canary,
Up the leg of her draws.
She pulled them down,
And found half-a-crown,
Up the leg of her draws.”
Of course we laughed. But when my Aunty Mary came to visit I was always curious as to whether she still had that canary, and was it still safely hidden within her underwear. One time when she was leaving she gave me a parting gift of half-a-crown and I was highly suspicious of its former whereabouts!
[For youngsters – half-a-crown was two shillings and sixpence, written as 2/6-; in modern Britain that would be 12½p, though the ½p went out of circulation in December 1984 as it cost more to manufacture than its face value! ]
Fairy Hanny 