Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: greenery

My Wife's Gone to the Country

07 Jan 2019 2 3 601
An amusing postcard that draws upon the "Oh You Kid!" craze of 1909 for its humor. This card was a bit risqué for its time, suggesting that a husband might fool around with other women while his wife is away. The caption on the card comes from the song, " My Wife’s Gone to the Country! Hurrah! Hurrah! ,” which was one of the "Oh You Kid!" songs published as sheet music in 1909: My wife’s gone to the country, hurray! hurray! She thought it best "I need the rest" That’s why she went away She took the children with her, hurray! hurray! I love my wife, but oh, you kid! My wife’s gone away In this age of social media, it's difficult to appreciate just how popular this--nudge, nudge, wink, wink--idea of "I love my wife, but oh, you kid!" became as it circulated in print through sheet music, postcards, and newspapers. Jody Rosen, however, documents its wide-ranging influence in a fascinating article that appeared in Slate magazine. See " How a Sexed-up Viral Hit from the Summer of '09–1909–Changed American Pop Music Forever ." For some additional postcard and sheet music examples, see my Oh You Kid! and Its Variants album.