A man performs the bawdy folk song "Sweet Violets" a week after his grandmother's funeral, honoring her love of humor and this particular song. He sings about a farmer's marriage proposal, letting the joke about what the violets cover do the work, the way she would have laughed.
Chapters
This is one of my grandma's favorite songs, and it's really a funny song. So we miss you, Grandma. It's been a week ago today since we laid you to rest, and I always appreciated your sense of humor. And so this one's for Grandma James, or as my son called her, Granny Great. So, Sweet Violets. There once was a farmer who took a young miss in back of the barn where he gave her a lecture on horses and chickens and eggs and told her that she has such beautiful manners that suited a girl of her charm, a girl that he liked for to take in his washing and ironing, and then if she did, they could get married and raise lots of sweet violets, sweeter than and the roses. Covered all over from head to toe, covered all over with sweet violets. The girl told the farmer that he'd better stop, and she told her father, and she called a taxi, which got there before very long, for someone was doing his little girl right for a change. And so here's what he said, "If you marry her, son, you're better off single, 'cause it's always been my belief marriage can bring a man nothing but sweet violets, sweeter than the roses, covered all over from head to toe, covered all over in sweet violets." The farmer decided he'd wed anyway and started in planning for his wedding suit, which he purchased for only $1. But then he found out he was just out of money, and so he got left in a lurch, standing and waiting in front of the end of the story, which just goes to show all a girl wants from a man is his sweet violets. Sweeter than the roses, covered all over from head to toe, covered all over in sweet violets. One of Grandma's favorite songs.
