Images from Vanished Americana
NOTHIN’ DOIN’.
J.M. Lewis, in Houston Post.
Gee whiz! School has been out a week,
And here I am till yet!
It does not matter how I seek
There ain’t no job to get!
There don’t nobody want a kid
Like me in no one’s store,
But, ding it all! I wish they did!
I’m gittin’ good and sore!I’ve tackled every store on Main,
But they don’t need no one;
This huntin’ jobs gives me a pain,
I’m very nearly done!
I’ll try just one more ice cream store,
And just one candy shop,
Then not try any more no more –
Just try these two and stop!When I get big I’ll start a place,
The biggest place in town,
Where boys like me can feed their face
Whenever they come down;
And little girls can come there, too,
And eat just all they can!
That is the way that I will do
When I become a man.And when they’ve et their cream and start
To pay for it I
Will say: “Why, bless your little heart,”
You didn’t come to buy!
You only come to visit me,
And I am glad you did!
And my friends get their ice cream free;
I used to be a kid.”I cannot find no man like what
I’m meanin’ for to be,
And not a one in town has got
A job of work for me.
Nobody pays me any mind,
As far as I can tell,
I guess I’ll have to try to find
Some rags and bones to sell.
The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.) Jun 8, 1915
