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I'm really glad you put the spurious root of Gringo from song lyrics to rest. However, you raise another point for me. I was in the Boy Scouts (now merely called Scouts) when I was much younger and when we sat round the campfire singing uproariously we would sing:
I'll sing you one-o
Green grow the rushes-O
What is your one-O
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
A new number was added at the beginning of each verse and the singers counted down to one. Eventually you came tiredly to the last verse:
I'll sing you twelve-o
Green grow the rushes-O
What is your twelve-o
Twelve for the twelve Apostles
Eleven for the eleven that went to heaven and
Ten for the Ten Commandments
Nine for the nine Bright Shiners
Eight for the April Rainers
Seven for the seven stars in the sky and
Six for the Six Brown(Proud?) Walkers
Five for the Symbols At Your Door and
Four for the Gospel Makers
Three, three the Ri-i-i-i-vals
Two, two the Lily White Boys covered all in Green ho-ho.
One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.
Are any of the other lyrics different in the American version do you know?
I don't remember seeing the words written down so my transcription is totally from memory - so I'm not sure what words I actually sung in some verses. Were the walkers brown or proud? I can't remember.
 I think I've heard that song once. Unfortunately, I was never a Scout. Maybe you can compare your versions with the US Scout versions here. It looks like their walkers are proud. (Boy, I'll bet somebody, somewhere, has written a tinfoil-hat paper on that song, claiming it's part of the Da Vinci Code... )
http://www.macscouter.com/songs/campfiresongs.asp
When you look up 'Green Grow the Rushes', it tends to get lost in versions of 'Green Grow the Rashes', a really pretty Robert Burns ballad. 
We always loved 'cumulative' songs when we were kids. We'd sing them in the car on long trips, until my dad would get so irritated he'd turn on the radio.  Our favourite was 'The Green Grass Grew All Around.'
'Green Grow the Lilacs' is a saccharine Irish American ballad. Here are Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter singing it, with Dutch subtitles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Fm9tQ0QQI
*Pulls out paper from desk drawer and blows dust off it*
Hmmm. "Why Green Glow the Russians-O is a Hintegral Part of the Der Vinchi Code... for Dummies"
*pushes it back into the drawer next to the foil hat*
Oh, you're the one.
I've found some more arcana on 'Green Grow the Rushes':
http://www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.ph...id=ca9d943d7f9e36cb459fde1310d0d4c4
Now, how about them apples?
When in scouts we used an alternative line when it got down to 2.
"Two, two the same to you! How's your father? ALRIGHT!"
Alright was shouted at the top of your voice.
"How's your father" is an interesting phrase in southern English. If it is said without a question in your voice it means doofer, whatsit, thingumabob.
"Pass me the 'owsyerfather." would be quite a common saying between two people undertaking a job requiring tools which neither know the name of.
That's cool, I never heard that.
You hear it in older British films sometimes. Ealing comedies etc. It would be a bit outdated now but just the sort of phrase that is ripe for reintroduction.
Yeah. Like the old American phrase, 'So's yer old man.' I was never quite sure what that meant.
Or, 'your mother wears army shoes.'
>your mother wears army shoes< !
Did they say that a lot?
What was the implication? Bossy/strict Sergeant of a mother?
Poverty - can't afford proper shoes?
I think it was the poverty bit.
Come to think of it, it was probably because of army surplus. One way people in the Depression got things, since money and goods were in such short supply. They probably bought all the stuff left over from WWI.
These were people who actually made clothing out of flour sacks.
My grandmother made my sister a blouse out of a flour sack once. (She left her suitcase at the motel on the way to the farm.)
Of course, the flour company made the sacks out of printed calico, just in case you'd want to do that. It was a very pretty flowered print, and my grandmother was skilled, she had sweatshop experience.
I remember int he 1970s wearing army surplus was a great thing. Everyone seemed to be in ex army/navy/airforce greatcoats. I had a huge one that nearly dragged along the floor even though I'm above average height. It covered a multitude of sins including bell bottom trousers and a kaftan.
My mum came from a very poor background and her friends often went without shoes altogether. I think she was shod but she remembered those times until she died.
Yeah, I remember that army surplus, too. 
I think the poverty stuck with them. My dad would always ask me if I had shoes, and it bothered him if I lost a coat button and didn't replace it immediately.
We always had to clear the plate - and boy am I paying for it now!
 
Yep. It's all their fault.
You bet !
One writer said (I can't remember who) that his weight problem was the fault of the Chinese. Because his mother always said that starving children in China would be glad to have that much food.
In the UK it was the African or Indian children. I would have been happy for them to have it if mum could have arranged it.
Yeah. Especially shepherd's pie. She tried that once. I don't think the Mississippi version of shepherd's pie was very successful.
How much were shepherds per pound? Maybe they were of poor quality. You must eat them fresh!
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