Harold M Cobb wrote in The History of Stainless Steel, (Pennsylvania 2009) describing his boyhood:

“… all I can remember of those earliest school days is that we marched towards the school exit at noon singing

Home to dinner, home to dinner,
There’s the bell, there’s the bell;
Mash a tater in a can
Ding dong bell, Ding dong bell.”

One can assume firstly that the song was sung to the tune of Frère Jacques and secondly that it has been in oral tradition for many years, albeit unnoted by song collectors.

28 March 2016

Notes by Gwilym Davies