My dad used to sing "Polly Wolly Doodle" to me and rock me in a chair when I was really little.
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/polly.htm
My grandpa used to sing something that was like
I wish I had a nickle
I wish I had a dime
I wish I had a little girl to love me all the time.
My mother I don't remember singing to me as much. But she did read to me.
My grandma used to sing this song:
Which really freaks me out when I think about it. But I never left the yard and went wandering away. I didn't want to end up like the poor babes in the woods and die.
http://www.missouristate.edu/folksong/m ... index.html
The real audio doesn't work but the quicktime one does, But
please forgive me for this if you do listen to it, that man can NOT SING!
Oh and in my grandma's version of the song the kids were not stolen away. I think it was like this "They wandered away on a bright summers day and were lost in the woods, so I heard people say."
My grandma also would tell me a story that was sort of like this:
One upon a time there was a poor little boy who had nothing to eat. He looked around but his cubboard was empty, so he went outside to see what he could find to eat. Then he found a bird's nest with a wee little egg in it. He took the egg out and ran home as fast as his little legs could carry him, to eat the egg. But when he got home he heard a bird and it sounded like it was singing "Bring back my wee little egg....bring back my wee little egg!" Every time he thought about eatting the egg he'd hear the bird. So finally he ran back to the nest as fast as his little legs could carry him to put the egg back. And later when he got home he found a lot of food magically appeared in his cubboard. And every time he heard the bird singing after that, it sounded like it was tweeting "You brought back my wee little egg...You brought back my wee little egg."