# Unshared cultural knowledge **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000 "2018-01-06T22:16:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/21 "2018-01-08T12:05:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > _Every_one? :dubious: You’d be surprised. Not everyone can hear the wind rushing through the coconut palms! ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/22 "2018-01-08T12:53:13Z")
I not only know the _Grandfather’s Clock_ song, but I wrote my own lyrics when my grandfather died and I inherited his socks. My grandfather’s sock was too large for his foot So it stayed ninety years in a drawer. It had holes in the sole and had holes in the toe Though it cost him a dollar ninety-four. It was bought on the day that my grandma was away And always was something of a joke. And it smelled bad, never was worn again Till the old man croaked. Ninety years without laundering Splish splash splish splash. Its mate had gone wandering Mismatch mismatch. And it smelled bad, never was worn again Till the old man croaked. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/23 "2018-01-08T12:56:32Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I remember an article in a magazine published by a missionary order where, talking about the consequences of war in… Mozambique I think it was?, one they mentioned was lack of access to feminine hygiene products. Modern ones weren’t accesible because of the war, old methods weren’t remembered well enough to actually be usable. “We’ve heard our grandmothers talk about using some moss, but we have no idea which moss it was or how to prepare it, and Grandma isn’t around to ask her any more.” That makes me think of a news story I saw recently about a guy who collects donated old sneakers, refurbishes them, and gives them out in (I think) Nepal. There are people there in that cold part of the world with no shoes. It made me wonder–there had to be some sort of home- or local-made footwear in that region traditionally, even if just some sort of woven reeds. But now they are dependent on charitable donations of modern mass-produced shoes. So was the cultural knowledge of traditional footwear lost? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/24 "2018-01-08T13:14:05Z")
Or they simply didn’t use much in the way of shoes. My brother’s MiL had owned espadrilles in her childhood but to be worn only rarely; she didn’t own a pair of shoes until her father died and the mother moved to the big city with her kids: to enter work as a serving maid, the two eldest daughters needed shoes. Spain 1940s-50s. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/25 "2018-01-08T17:12:03Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Is the song just an American thing? > I don’t think it’s well known in England, although the term grandfather clock is well known there. No, I’m a 55-year-old in England, and I know the song well. It was regularly played on _Junior Choice_ in the 60s and 70s. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s now unfamiliar to those who aren’t middle-aged Radio 2 listeners, though. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/26 "2018-01-08T17:26:56Z")
I learned that song from an episode of _The Twilight Zone_: “Ninety Years Without Slumbering” Which illustrates another salient point of culture in general: It builds on, and refers to, itself. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/27 "2018-01-08T18:42:37Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Or they simply didn’t use much in the way of shoes. I can’t google it back up again (I think it was a piece on 60 Minutes or one of the long weekend pieces on CBS News) but the guy repaired the shoes and distributed them himself in one of the higher-latitude, higher-altitude Asian countries–Nepal or Tibet or Bhutan or similar–one of the places where going without shoes can lead to going without toes. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/28 "2018-01-08T18:47:44Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I didn’t know the term came from the song. I know the song! But I’ve never heard of the JC version, we actually learned the “folk song” in elementary school music class in the 80s. > > Anyway…there’s a local musician in Cleveland that has always been ubiquitous here, named Michael Stanley. He was kinda big in the 70s and 80s and after that has been a radio DJ and on TV and stuff. I’m not a fan or anything but he’s considered “Cleveland’s son” since he grew up here, for famous here and stayed here. > > I mentioned his name to a friend a few years ago, who is my age and also from the Cleveland area, and she’d never heard of him. Never heard of him! I got mad that she didn’t know who he was and she got mad that I was so mad about it but I was like “how far up your own ass are you??” > > I did a poll on Facebook of all my my-age-and-my-area friends (and our shared friends) and they all knew who he was. Except one other person, who I’ve also decided has her head up her ass. > > I guess this isn’t a good example of “nobody knows but I thought everyone knows” but an example of “everybody knows and it’s super weird that these two don’t know.” I graduated from high school 80 miles south of Cleveland in 1994, and even _I_ know who Michael Stanley is! Though, to be honest, I can’t name any of his songs. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/29 "2018-01-08T18:50:46Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Allen Sherman did the best version (as usual) but I can’t find it on Youtube. [https://youtu.be/K2Cut3XwJxM?t=195](https://youtu.be/K2Cut3XwJxM?t=195) ? ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/30 "2018-01-08T20:33:49Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Now, how many of these people remember “I’ve got six pence, jolly jolly six pence, I’ve got six pence to last me all my life” ? > > ETA: No, I can’t believe either that anyone of the generation of us old codgers doesn’t know Grandfather’s Clock. Yes, I learned it in elementary school music class. I see your Grandfather’s Clock and Jolly Sixpence and raise you a Barges, Waddlee-Atchee, Noah, Bunny Foo Foo, An Austrian Went Yodeling, AND Haggalina Maggalina. I’m 56 and I remember a lot of the songs we learned in music class. I was a Campfire Girl, too so there were a whole bunch more songs. I remember the words and actions and they pop into my head from out of nowhere after all these years. It’ll be raining hard and people are streaming in from the parking lot and I hear “Get those children (CLAP!) out of the muddy muddy” in my head. Or someone says something is simple and I almost reply back “Waddlee atchee waddle atchee doodly doo, doodly doo”. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/31 "2018-01-08T21:07:58Z")
I learned the tune “My Grandfather’s Clock” because my brother had a toy similar to [this one](https://www.ebay.com/i/352190929800?chn=ps). My mother then taught us the lyrics, although I basically only remember her singing the “and it stopped/ short/ never to go again/ when the old man died” part. Years later (but long before reading this thread) I learned that the song gave rise to the “grandfather clock” term. Having been born in 1959 and growing up in the Cleveland area, I’m well aware of who Michael Stanley is. I even remember when he reworked [this number](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocaAy8uuTEg) with Indians baseball-specific lyrics (“This team/ is my team/ all right”) during one of the years when I was a vendor at Cleveland Stadium in the '80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/32 "2018-01-08T21:12:15Z")
[Bunny Foo Foo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PusCpQIbmCw). ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/33 "2018-01-08T22:41:03Z")
Wikipedia confirms that the song gave rise to the term “Grandfather Clock” (the older, and to this day more formal term is “Longcase clock”), and also that the tune is well-known in Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Arizona\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Arizona\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arizona_Mike)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/34 "2018-01-09T01:51:37Z")
I had a 45 record of the song (I remember the label, with a grandfather clock with an old man’s face in it) and played it incessantly in the early 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/35 "2018-01-09T02:27:58Z")
I’m 64 from the UK and have never heard the song. I know what a grandfather clock is (and one of my aunts used to have one.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/36 "2018-01-09T03:58:35Z")
Never heard the song, and never knew the term came from it. I’m kind of boggled to learn this. And I’m over 60. Looking at [etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/grandfather)more closely, the term doesn’t came directly from the song. > [@](#): > > Grandfather clock is from 1894, originally grandfather’s clock (1876), “a furniture dealer’s name” [OED] from “My Grandfather’s Clock,” the 1876 song by Henry Clay Work that was enormously popular (and loathed) in late 1870s. It indicates that they were beginning to seem old-fashioned; they were previously known as tall case clocks or eight-day clocks. Work just refers to his grandfather’s clock; later uses picked up on the song, though presumably people had been referring to that style of clock in that fashion after the song became popular. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/37 "2018-01-09T05:58:29Z")
My family had a tape copy of this version sung by the men of the Robert Shaw Chorale. [Robert Shaw Chorale - Grandfather's Clock.avi - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml6qUK4k2TI) In one of his video commentaries, Harlan Ellison complained about nobody catching a reference to “Lost Horizon”. The transcript is [here](http://harlanellison.com/buzz/bw134h.htm), but IIRC it was based on an earlier print column. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/38 "2018-01-09T15:10:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > _Every_one? :dubious: You’d be surprised. > > Hell, I assumed everyone watched\* [Dinner For One](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One)\* on New Year’s Eve, and everyone knew who [Rodriguez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixto_Rodriguez) was. Rodriguez’ story is like a fairy tale. I’m glad he was in fact alive to enjoy his belated fame 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![spidercat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@spidercat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spidercat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/39 "2018-01-09T17:41:03Z")
When I found out my friend didn’t know what a grub\* was, I, completely incredulous, told another friend. “Can you believe this moron doesn’t know what a grub is?” “What’s a grub?” I polled 10 people and only 1 person knew what a grub is. - I was using it in context of a beetle larva in conversation, specifically ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000/40 "2018-01-09T18:24:24Z")
> [@Lizard](#): > > I graduated from high school 80 miles south of Cleveland in 1994, and even _I_ know who Michael Stanley is! Though, to be honest, I can’t name any of his songs. I graduated from the same area in 1991, I knew who Michael Stanley was. “He Can’t Love you like I love you” Didn’t know he was a radio personality though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unshared-cultural-knowledge/806000.md?page=3)