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It is not news that training materials for young employees often have dark origins, featuring messages that, under the happy-skippy exterior of music and illustrations, are rather, shall we say, questionable. For instance:
Rock-a-bye baby,
On the treetop,
When the wind blows,
the cradle will rock.
If the bough breaks,
the cradle will fall,
and down will come baby,
cradle and all.
So, the baby falls out of the tree. Sleep well!
"Ring around the Rosy" allegedly came out of the Bubonic Plague, referencing the rashes, the flowers used to cover the smell of sores, and the ashes of cremated bodies.
Jack and Jill fell down the hill, and Jack broke his crown, but did you remember that Old Dame Ned patched his head with vinegar and brown paper? I didn't. Ew.
Poor Humpty Dumpty wasn't even that lucky, as all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put him together again. To be fair, though, he was an egg, and shouldn't have been sitting on a wall in the first place.
On the other hand, what about those four and twenty blackbirds who were baked in a pie. Talk about ew. Supposedly the birds began to sing when the pie was opened, but maybe they were screaming post-traumatically from their experience in the oven? And then the pie is labeled "dainty," insinuating that this bird pie was actually a nice thing to give someone, especially a king. It's all very questionable, really.
Little Red Riding Hood's Grandma was eaten, for heaven's sake. But at least (in the kinder versions), she does make it out alive.
The Big Bad Wolf destroyed two out of the three little pigs' homes with all his huffing and puffing. Hope they were able to contact FEMA.
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe had so many children, she lost her marbles. All the kids went to bed hungry and beaten.
And most tragic, perhaps, is the tale of the Ladybug:
Ladybug, ladybug,
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire and your children are gone.
All except one, her name is Ann,
and she crept under the frying pan.
My God, it's like my worst nightmare. Someone telling me I'd better get home because my dreams have burned to the ground? I've lost everything I own and possibly my kids? Except for poor Ann, under the frying pan, who surely is traumatized forever.
The best part about all these rhymes and stories is that they're such an integral part of our culture. And, they're fun. Imagine that. Such a cruel and strange world that we live in.
I find it astounding how cruel fairytales are. Particularly the original Grimms. Did you know that in the original Cinderella, the wicked stepsisters cut off toes and other foot parts to fit in the slipper? Even I don't like shoes that much.