Goober Peas

Verse 1 :Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day :Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away :Lying in the shadows underneath the trees :Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas. :Chorus ::Peas, peas, peas, peas ::Eating goober peas ::Goodness, how delicious, ::Eating goober peas. Verse 2 :When a horse-man passes, the soldiers have a rule :To cry out their loudest, "Mister, here's your mule!" :But another custom, enchanting-er than these :Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas. :Chorus : Verse 3 :Just before the battle, the General hears a row :He says "The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now." :He turns around in wonder, and what d'ya think he sees? :The 15th Alabama, eating goober peas. :Chorus ::(Note: There sat the 15th Alabama, is reported in contemporary accounts) Verse 4 :I think my song has lasted almost long enough. :The subject's interesting, but the rhymes are mighty tough. :I wish the war was over, so free from rags and fleas :We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts, and gobble goober peas. :Chorus ==Additional verse==

The Reverend Wayland Fuller Dunaway recorded a stanza of the song he heard while imprisoned at the Union prison on Johnson's Island, Ohio, during the latter part of the Civil War. Dunaway had been a captain in Co. I, 40th Virginia Infantry, when he was captured during the Battle of Falling Waters in July 1863. His stanza: :But now we are in prison and likely long to stay, :The Yankees they are guarding us, no hope to get away; :Our rations they are scanty, 'tis cold enough to freeze,— :I wish I was in Georgia, eating goober peas. ::Peas, peas, peas, peas, ::Eating goober peas; :I wish I was in Georgia, eating goober peas. :::—Stanza of a Prison Song. ==In popular culture==

• In Veep Season 3 Episode 3 "Alicia", Mike is made to kneel and sing "Goober Peas" by Jonah in order to not publish a compromising story. • In the Parks and Recreation Season 5 episode titled "Article Two," Patton Oswalt plays Garth Blundin, who challenges Leslie Knope to compete in a 1800s “roughing it” competition, at one point running through the background playing with a hoop-and-stick and singing “Goober Peas.”[5] • In M*A*S*H Season 6 Episode 13 "Comrades in Arms: Part One", Hawkeye and Margaret are sent to the 8063rd to demonstrate arterial transplant surgery. En route, Hawkeye sings "Gooder Peas", saying it's a Civil War song and he wants to act military. The lyrics "eating goobers peas" are substituted in this version. ==Bibliography==