Oral traditions

[bohemiancoast]

Or 'all knowledge is not contained on the internet' in fact. When I was a small child my father used to tell me bedtime stories. Some of them were poems. And one of our favourites was this

Comments

[bopeepsheep]

I've heard the brigands version, but - in Oxfordshire, with parents technically from West London - we told it as
'Twas a daaaaaark and stormy night. The captain said "Tell us a story, Bosun*!" So the bosun said "'Twas a daaaaaark and stormy night!" Etc. On occasion it would be expanded to "..stormy night, and the wind was blowing a gale. The ship's captain said..." but no longer than that.

* When at 5 or 6 I read a book with a 'boatswain' in it, it took me about 3 minutes to figure out it was the same word. My parents were apparently somewhat scared by this leap of intuition. But forecastle/fo'c's'le puzzled me for months...

[grytpype_thynne]

It was a dark and stormy night.
The captain turned to the first mate and said:
"Tell us a story."
The crew gathered together and the first mate began:
"It was a dark and stormy night..."

My dad was in the Navy in WW2 but I suspect he may have heard it before even that.

How about updating it with...

It was a dark and stormy night.
The Novacon members sat in the bar.
The Big Name Fan arose, and he said (in a Birmingham accent):
"Ian tell us a joke!"
And this is what he said...

[darth_tigger]

It was a dark and stormy night, and the sailors said "Tell us a story Captain!" And this is the story he told... It was a dark and (etc etc)

[darth_tigger]

PS We were in Derbyshire, but it was almost always told by my dad who was from Yorkshire.

[inamac]

The version I know has a sing-song rhythm:

It was a dark and stormy night
And the Captain said to the Mate,
"Oi, Mate, tell us a yarn!"

And the yarn went something like this:
It was a dark and stormy night [repeat ad infinitum]

I suspect the 'Oi, Mate!' is very Sarf Lunnon.

[lil_shepherd]

Never heard of it - even from inamac with whom I have shared a house for a very long time.

South Yorkshire (Sheffield), paternal grandparents from Derbyshire (Matlock). (Mother and maternal parents from Germany, so not expected from them.)