Laudator Temporis Acti quotes an amusing poem from 1931 by A. P. Herbert on the British fondness for bacon and eggs. There is an equally-amusing country song by the Lovett Sisters saying much the same about Americans in 1954. Here are the lyrics, transcribed and punctuated by me:
You can walk into a rest’rant, at breakfast-time you’ll see
a bunch of people comin’ in as hungry as can be.
They sit and read the menu like it was the morning news,
and all the time the waitress knows just what they’re gonna choose:Chorus:
“Bacon and eggs”, “bacon and eggs” –
that’s what they’ll always say.
“Oh, gimme bacon and eggs”, “bacon and eggs” –
she hears it a hundred times a day.They get a glass of water and a menu from the rack.
They read it on the front and then they’ll read it on the back
About the time you think they oughta have it memorized,
they lay it down and order every waitress a surprise:(Chorus)
I wonder what they’d do if all the pigs and chickens died.
Breakfast wouldn’t be the same, no matter what they tried.
But pigs will still make little pigs and hens are gonna lay,
and waitresses will wait and wait, and always hear them say:(Chorus)
If you want to hear the song actually sung, it’s on an album entitled “Gals of the ‘Big D’ Jamboree”.
