The Donut Song

Oh, I walks into a beanery to get something to eat

For I was so hungry, from my head to my feet

So, I picks up a donut and I wipes off the grease

And I hand the lady girl a five cent piece.

She looks at the nickel and she looks at me

And she says, “Hey Lady, can’t you plainly see,”

“There’s a hole in the nickel and it’s running right through.”

Says I, “there’s a hole in the donut too!” 

My Grandmom Sara sang us The Donut Song when we were little. I can still remember the expressions on her face. She sang it in her own unique way - with a little bit of a Jewish accent and a lot of emphasis in all of the right places.


Today, there are so many things that remind me of her. I can't look at a can of Aqua Net without thinking of her or walk through Macy's and see the brand of clothes she liked. If My Fair Lady is on the television, I watch it and think of her.  Her sweet and sour meatballs were so delicious!  In the last years of her life, she lived in my bedroom in my childhood home. When I go home to visit, I love to look through her things that she left behind.

Almost thirty years after Grandmom Sara sang that song to me - I placed my baby girl in her arms. I listened as she sang The Donut Song to her first great-granddaughter. I only wish she could have lived long enough for my daughter to learn the song by heart - with the Jewish accent and the emphasis in all of the right places.

This week's memoir prompt asked you to dig deep to find what, from your childhood, you still know from heart. This is dedicated to my Grandmom Sara - by heart, in my heart - always.