Old lady O'Leary's cow

Cafe Society
1

I’m working on a book about the Great Chicago Fire. Of course the first thing everybody says when they hear this is, oh yeah, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. (Who, for the record, is innocent.) I want to quote the old song about her. It was still current when I was in elementary school (in fact I think we sang it in music class), but that was in the late 60s. The book is for nine-year-olds, and I wonder if today’s kids will have heard it. The version I knew was:

One dark night, when the world was all in bed,
Old lady O’Leary took the lantern to the shed
And when the cow kicked it over she winked her eye and said,
“There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!”

So, if you’re younger than I am, have you heard this rhyme? If you have kids, have they heard it? And if you do know it, how is your version different from mine? (There seems to be some disagreement in the various versions as to whether it was Mrs. O’Leary or the cow who winked, for instance.)

2

Somebody is still singing it, although they probably learned it from their grandparents.

3

I recall the first 2 lines as:

Late last night when we were all in bed
Mrs. O’Leary took a lantern to the shed.

4

We sand it in Girl Scouts in the 80s. Slightly different:

Late last night, while we were all in bed
Old lady Leary lit a lantern in the shed
And when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
It’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

Repeat ad-nauseaum, getting quieter every time.

5

Slight variation, but also girl scout camp:

One night we was all asleep in bed
Old Lady Leary lit a lantern in the shed
And when her cow kicked it over
She winked her eye and said
It’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight.

FIRE FIRE FIRE!

6

From late 1980s, I remember ZipperJJ’s version, with the addition of

(everyone) FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!
(boys) Jump, lady, jump!
(girls) Aaaaaaahhhh!!!
(everyone) SPLAT!!!

Then repeat version and chorus, getting quieter each time until you get bored or stop for some other reason.

7

From Camp (co-ed)

One dark night, when we were all in bed (la la la)
Old Lady O’Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kick-ed it o-ver
She winked her eye and said
"It’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight (fire fire fire)

then we sang either that phrase, or another a couple times, and then at the end we said “fire fire fire fire…waterrrrrrrr flush”

8

Here’s the original sheet music, which does NOT have the Mrs. O’Leary section.

9

I was born in 1962, we used to sing the song in boy scouts although [very] ]slightly different.
One dark night, when when we were all in bed,
Old Lady O’Learly lit the lantern in the shed.
When the cow kicked it over,
She winked her eye and said,
It’s gonna be a hot time, in the old town, tonight.
FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

and we would sing the main part softer and softer each time, but yell out FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

10

Just for the record, the variation I remember had “She kicked her heels and said, There’ll be a hot time…” Also it was “Old Lady Leary,” even though everyone knew the name Mrs. O’Leary, but “O’Leary” didn’t scan.

Googling the “kicked her heels” version turns up exactly one hit, from a book titled Hidden History of Old Town.

11

There were probably scouts involved with mine, too.

Late last night, when we were all in bed
Old Mizz O’Leary* put a lantern in the shed
And when the cow kicked it over,
Missus O’Leary said
There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

*you could tell is was supposed to be Missus, but slurred together with O’Leary to make it scan.

12

Mine was “Old lady 'leary” too the more I think about it.

So I’ll collude with you on that one

13

Thanks everybody. It looks like “late 80s” is the most recent reference I’ve got, which would make it ancient history for a nine-year-old. Although I suppose I could take kunilu’s page as evidence that at least some adults are still teaching it to some kids.