Youth Activity Archive

A humorous song with repeating phrases and playful variations.

This is a Repeat and Answer Song.

Recordings

• YouTube – Girl Scout Songs
• YouTube – Mountain Camp Woodside

Lyrics

Well, I walked around the corner
and I walked around the block,
And I walked right into a donut shop.

And I picked up a donut,
and I licked off the grease,
and I handed the lady a 5-cent piece.

Well, she looked at the nickel,
and she looked at me.
she said, “This nickel isn’t good to me,

It’s got a hole in the middle,
And it goes right through!”
I said, “There’s a hole in my donut too!”

Thanks for the donut, so long!

History

The melody used for “The Donut Shop” is not originally American. Its definitive ancestor is “The Rose Tree,” a traditional air from the British Isles. It was documented in printed manuscripts as early as 1795. Musicologists like Alan Jabbour (founding director of the American Folklife Center) identify this as the primary source for the tune that would later dominate American fiddle culture.

The transition from “The Rose Tree” to “Turkey in the Straw” involved a specific musical change. While “The Rose Tree” remains grounded in a lower tonic note during its second strain, the American “Turkey” variants (c. 1830s) thrust up to the octave. This higher, more energetic “leap” in the melody is exactly what characterizes the “Donut Shop” chorus: “It’s got a hole in the middle, and it goes right through!”

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For More Fun Ideas and Plans

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