I'm My Own Grandpa

C 7

Many, many years ago when I was twenty-three

 

I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be

 

This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red

 

My father fell in love with her and soon they two were wed

 

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life

For my daughter was my mother 'cause she was my father's wife

To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy

I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy

 

This bouncing baby boy became a brother-in-law to Dad

And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad

For if he was my uncle, then that also made him brother

Of the widow's grown-up daughter who of course was my stepmother

 

Chorus:

Oh I'm my own grandpa; I'm my own grandpa

 

It sounds funny I know, but it really is so

 

Oh I'm my own grandpa

 

Father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run

And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son

My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue

Because although she is my wife, she's my grandmother too

 

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild

And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild

For now I have become the strangest case I ever saw

As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa (Chorus)

In the 1930s, Latham had a group, the Jesters, on network radio; their specialties were bits of spoken humor

and novelty songs. While reading a book of Mark Twain anecdotes, he once found a paragraph in which Twain

proved it would be possible for a man to become his own grandfather. In 1947, Latham and Jaffe expanded the

idea into a song, which became a hit for Lonzo and Oscar.