Andy Walks With Me

This little tidbit of information came to me over the Season, which purportedly relates to a child telling the Minister that he knows God’s first name – Andy. He quoted from the Austin Miles hymn “In the Garden”, where in the refrain the words are:

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

The child believed the words to be Andy walked with me etc. A typical mondegreen – a result of mishearing or misinterpreting words. Something with my slowly failing hearing I find happens all the time (my children call this selective hearing – I disagree!)

There is a famous mondegreen attributed to the British Army during WW1. Communications was difficult to say the least, but a platoon was about to launch an attack. A message was passed to the General that said, “Send reinforcements, we’re going to advance.” By the time the General got the message, it had become, “Send 3/4d (three and fourpence), we’re going to a dance.” Seems the platoon never got their reinforcements. (Another lesson in history here – 3/4d. Three shillings and fourpence. Prior to the UK government deciding to totally confuse people by changing real money to ‘decimal’, in today’s money, that would be about 17 pence (34 cents in US).

Another fine example is, “I led the pigeons to the flag,” instead of, “I pledge allegiance to the flag.”

Anyone know any other mondegreens?

Here’s wishing all you thousands of readers out there, a Happy New Year.

Here endeth today's lesson.