FAMILY SONGS BY RS
Page 1 of songs
- Nifty-fifty 2. Beyond 60 3. Masai Match (Marilyn) 4.Gin&John Wed. 5. Hard Man Dan 6. Dave’s getting married 7. CarEmSan 8.TodsyTurvy 9.Christmas 2002 10. M&M Lane 11.Granny Lane 12.Man from Muruu 13.Gini B’dy 14. Oh, Africa! (click link below)
Link to family singing “Oh Africa” Christmas in New Mexico 2016
FOLLOWING TWO SONGS CELEBRATE RS/ELS ANNIV.
NIFTY FIFTY (7 verses)
(Celebrating Roy and Betty’s Fiftieth year of Marriage.Tarangire Safari Lodge, 1996 Tune: The Girl that I Marry”
- A ce-dar log ca-bin out near Na-rok
A grass-thatched ron-da-vel Loi-tok-i-tok
With Ki-li in the sky
There was mu-sic and laugh-ter
And love in each eye.
To far Sim-ba sta-tion in Mo-del T
To R.V.A. School, sort of “pur-ga-try”
Teach-er chur-ning, and some learn-ing
Then to Whea-ton where for-tune was turn-ing
For there Roy found Bet-ty
A most luck-y fel-la he be!
2. In Wa-shing-ton D.C. she came to be
In Swit-zer-land moun-tains she learned to ski
At char-ming Cha-teaux D’oex
With some hikes to the moun-tains
Through fresh-ly mown hay
And then Whea-ton Col-lege in U.S.A.
Her home wel-comed stu-dents from far a-way
Like young Bar-nett, from El-do-ret
There Ruth Bell and her Bil-ly, the two met
And then in came Ro-oy
And much to his jo-oy they clicked.
3. They stu-died, and worked, and each got a de-gree
And then while in Eng-land they got Dan-ny
Then out to R.V.A.
There was tea-ching and hunt-ing
And Jac-‘ran-da days
To start there was Da-vid then Car-o-lyn
And then came the Mau-Mau and Mar-i-lyn
R.V. bo-ys, K.L. no-ise
Ko-la-Ndo-to where sis-ters did re-joice
The fif-ties were nif-ty
But sto-ry has on-ly be-gun.
4. They then flew to New York to Al-b a-ny
Where mom once more helped dad get his M. D.
And top-ping all the rest
There came Ma-ry E-liz-beth
To fluff up the nest
Then off to Mon-du-li and ‘Ru-sha school
The po-lice said “Dan-ny you ain’t so cool”
‘Long came Gi-ni, fam’-ly “fii-ni”
Then a new house to build in Nai-ro-bi
Prince-O’ and the “Bom-a”
AM-REF and the church N.B.C.
5. Dear Go-koo taught Maa to a char-ming two
Theywere Eu-nie and Dave up at Il-bo-ru
Their first-borne’s name was Steve
Eu-nie prayed, and she schemed,
And a net she did weave.
All cud-dled be-hind Steve on his pi-kii
Our Mar-lyn was com-fy as she could be
Held him clo-ser, till he caught her
Then he asked, and her dad an-swered “yes sir”.
A nice Maa-sai match, yes
Kin-ji-pa O-lai-tor-ia-nii.
6. These no-mads mi-gra-ted to Lou-don-ville
To L.C.C., Sha-ker, and days so chill
In far ‘Me-ri-ca-ni
Times at Pin -na-cle, Schroon Lake
And Dave’s ha-ru-si
And then back to Ken-ya the Med School won
And Car’-lyn to Peace Corps in hot Ga-bon
Fledglings flying, Cha-let emp-ty
Moved to Nav’s where was swim-ming a-plen-ty
And fin’-lly to U.S.
Near Dan in old Al-bu-quer-que.
7. We both were so na-ieve in for-ty six
So of-ten God spared us from self-made fix
His pa-tience car-ried on
And he trus-ted us with kids
That we could brag on
And now that we’ve passed our “three-score and ten”
We’re real-ly a-glow with our our GRAND-child-ren
Each one nor-mal, each one special,
Each one pre-cious and beau-ti-ful ves-sel
Yes, fifty’s been nifty
To God be the glo-ry , A-MEN!.
_______________________________________
BEYOND SIXTY (7 verses)
(Celebrating Roy and Betty’s 63d year of Marriage.
Reunion, Albuquerque, NM, USA, July 09
Tune: The Girl that I Marry”)
- A ce-dar log ca-bin out near Na-rok
A grass-thatched ron-da-vel Loi-tok-i-tok
With Ki-li in the sky
There was mu-sic and laugh-ter
And love in each eye.
To far Sim-ba sta-tion in Mo-del T
To R.V.A. School, sort of “pur-ga-try”
Teach-er chur-ning, and some learn-ing
Then to Whea-ton where for-tune was turn-ing
For there Roy found Bet-ty
A most luck-y fel-la he be!
2. In Wa-shing-ton D.C. she came to be
In Swit-zer-land moun-tains she learned to ski
At char-ming Cha-teaux D’oex
With some hikes to the moun-tains
Through fresh-ly mown hay
And then Whea-ton Col-lege in U.S.A.
Her home wel-comed stu-dents from far a-way
Like young Bar-nett, from El-do-ret
There Ruth Bell and her Bil-ly, the two met
And then in came Ro-oy
And much to his jo-oy they clicked.
________________________________
(Needs editing and completion)
We both were so na-ieve in for-ty six
So of-ten God spared us from self-made fix
His pa-tience car-ried on
And he trus-ted us with kids
That we could brag on
__________________________________
3. They stu-died, and worked, and each got a de-gree
And then while in Eng-land they got Dan-ny
Then out to R.V.A.
There was tea-ching and hunt-ing
And Jac-‘ran-da days
To start there was Da-vid then Car-o-lyn
And then came the Mau-Mau and Mar-i-lyn
R.V. bo-ys, K.L. no-ise
Ko-la-Ndo-to where sis-ters did re-joice
The fif-ties were nif-ty
But sto-ry has on-ly be-gun.
4. They then flew to New York to Al-b a-ny
Where mom once more helped dad get his M. D.
And top-ping all the rest
There came Ma-ry E-liz-beth
To fluff up the nest
Then off to Mon-du-li and ‘Ru-sha school
The po-lice said “Dan-ny you ain’t so cool”
‘Long came Gi-ni, fam’-ly “fii-ni”
Then a new house to build in Nai-ro-bi
Prince-O’ and the “Bom-a”
AM-REF, and the church N.B.C.
5. These no-mads mi-gra-ted to Lou-don-ville
To L.C.C., Sha-ker, and days so chill
In far ‘Me-ri-ca-ni
Times at Pin -na-cle, Schroon Lake
And Dave’s ha-ru-si
And then back to Ken-ya the Med School won
And Car’-lyn to Peace Corps in hot Ga-bon
Fledglings flying, Cha-let emp-ty
Moved to Nav’s where was swim-ming a-plen-ty
And fin’-lly to U.S.
Near Dan in old Al-bu-quer-que.
6. Dear Go-koo taught Maa to a char-ming two
Theywere Eu-nie and Dave up at Il-bo-ru
Their first-borne’s name was Steve
Eu-nie prayed, and she schemed,
And a net she did weave.
All cud-dled be-hind Steve on his pi-kii
Our Mar-lyn was com-fy as she could be
Held him clo-ser, till he caught her.
Then he asked, and her dad an-swered “yes, sir”.
A nice Maa-sai match, yes
Kin-ji-pa O-lai-tor-ia-nii.
7. And now that we’ve passed, on “three-score and then”
We’re real-ly a-glow with our GRAND-child-ren
- – – – – –
- – – – – – – –
- – – – – –
- – – – – – – – – –
- – – – – – – – – –
Each one nor-mal, each one special,
Each one pre-cious and beau-ti-ful ves-sel
Yes, six-ty’s been nifty
To God be the glo-ry , A-MEN!
_____________________________________________
FOLLOWING ARE SIX SONGS ABOUT OUR SIX OFFSPRING
Mare, Gin, Dan, Dave, Carolyn, Bets.
MAASAI MATCH (4 verses)
(Steve and Marilyn
Tune – The Girl that I Marry)
- Our Mare’s get-ting mar-ried to quite a guy
He’s friend-ly and ea-sy as ap-ple pie
And Ste-phen is his name
and be-caause of his love she is one lu-cky dame
Theywere kids to-ge-ther at Loli-on-do
One fa-mous sa-fa-ri of fun and woe
Then, much ol-der, Ste-phen bold-er
In his arms he did gen-tly en-fold her
OH LEO RA-HA SA-NA
HA-WA, NA-PEN-DA-NA
HOO-RAY!!
2. Young la-dy came o-ver from Mo-shi town
She sat next to Steve, and she knocked him down
And Mar-lyn was her name
And ac-cor-ding to Steve he is quite glad she came
Her class sa-fa-ris from I.S.M.
Were just an ex-cuse to at-tract this gem
Once called “HO-NEY”, al-ways sun-ny
“Live on love” when they run out of mo-ney
Repeat chorus
3. Now Roy, and Bet-ty, and Eu-nie, and Dave
Have twice as much a-bout which to rave
Its ta-ken eight-een years
With some hop-ing and cop-ing, some laughs and some tears
Now folks you can call it a Maa-sai match
And Go-koo says “oiengoshoki ai WHAT A CATCH!”
Say the fa-thers, and the mo-thers,
Sis-ters un-cles and cou-sins and bro-thers
Repeat chorus
4. So off, you go-o, you hap-py pair
Through sea-sons a-chang-ing, some foul, some fair
Keep teamed up with the Lord
He will glue you to-ge-ther, keep hearts in ac-cord
He’ll help you dai-ly to fol-low the way
Of “JI-TE-GE-ME-A” and “HA-RAM-BEE”
Na kwa Ken-ya, Tan-za-ni-a,
N-chi ye-nu, u-mo-ja kwa ni-aaa
Repeat chorus.
End
___________________________________
GIN-JOHN Wedding (8 verses)
(Tune “Mun-gu U-ba-ri-ki A-fri-ica”)
- Hap-py sto-ry starts at Ma-kin-du
Where the a-ni-mals were like a zoo
In sight, snows of Ki-li
Train tracks, to Nai-ro-bi
SHAF-FERS AND ARMES, to Af-ri-ca
SENT IN GOD’S LOVE, from ‘Mer-i-ca
U-bar-i-ki, jamaa wa-wi-li
Na wa-to-to wa-ke.
2. La-ter on the Armes did move to Gai
Sha-ffers to the Tan-za-nia Maa-sai
Still met at Ki-ja-be
Or else in Nai-ro-bi
SHA-FFERS AND ARMES, quite Af-ri-can
BUT AL-SO STILL, A-mer-i-can
U-ba-ri-ki, ja-ma wa-wi-li
Na wa-to-to wa-ke.
3. At the GFREAT RIFT VA-LLEY ‘CA-DE-MY
Bas-ket-ball and ‘V-ball and rug-by
Dorm life, with some strange “tea”
Se-nior sa-a-fa-ri
GIN-NY AND JOHN, products ofA-fri-ca
GIN-NY AND JOHN, set for’Me-ri-ca
U-ba-ri-ki, wat-to-to we-tu
Na sa-fa-ri ya-ke
4. John up on the Look-out Tenn-i-see,
Gin lost in the maize in Illi-noi-ee
Each one got a de-gree
Butbaa-do ha-a-ru-si
GIN-NY AND JOHN, where in ‘Me-ri-ca
COULD EACH FIND FRIEND, quite likeA-fri-ca
U-ba-ri-ki, wa-to-to we-tu
Pe-le-le-za wa-ke.
5. Then the pen-ny dropped, the phone did ring
toGin-ni from Vir-gin-ia, Herbrain went “DING”
Mane-no min-gi saa-naa
Mo-yo fu-u-ra-ha
GIN-NY AND JOHN, love ofA-fri-ca
“KO-RO-GA’D” WITH, dreams in ‘Mer-i-ca
U-ba-ri-ki, wato-to we-tu
na Ki-un-go wa-ke.
6. Hegot her to Lake George, a real “snow job”
Xposed her to his fam-‘ly lov-ing mob
Stead-‘ly John-ny chased Gin
Fin-‘ly Gin-ny caught HIM
GIN-NY AND JOHN, out of Afri-ca
THEY FELL ;IN LOVE in Amer-i-ca
U-ba-ri-ki, wato-to we-tu
Na wa-to-to wa-ke
7. Now the time has come, we’re ta-ya-ri
For this most mo-men-tous ha-ru-si
Hearts beat, be-lls they chime
Get us, to church on time
GIN-I’S MAN JOHN he’s quitea bwa-na
JOHNNY’S GAL GIN m’ zuri sa-na
Smiles are all wide, “here comes the bride!”
Lets get on with the show.
8. Just to fin-ish off this sweet sto-ry
We must men-tion Al-bert and Lau-rie
El-len, Hank and his Jean
Da-na and friend Lo-rene
San-dra, Ja-net and Bill
Angel-o Leigh and Rus-sell
WON-DER-FUL Friends Cha-pel Hill-ers
THEIR LOVE HAS LEGS ex-pe-di-ters
We thank the Lord, these friends and more
Make our spi-rits to soar.
_________________________________________
HARD MAN DAN (2 verses)
(Tune – “The Girl That I Marry”)
- Like sis-ters, like bro-ther its nice to be
Con-ten-ted-ly wrapped up in matrii-mo-ny,
But Dan was hard to wrap
From a ser-ies of girls he did pre-serve a GAP
There was Mug-sy and Cin-dy and Ra-chel too
And Bet-sy and Deb-by and dark haired Sue
Then came Gret-chen. (pause) Changed his vis-ion.
He did chase her un-til she did catch him!
We’re proud of dear Gret-chen
We love her, she’s so neat, HOO-RAY!
- Now dear Dan and Gret-chen, were full of life,
And per-fect ex-am-ples of “man-and-wife,”
Ex-cept for one small thing,
There was no noi-sy, mes-sy, ex-pen-sive off-spring
So boy were we glad when the tel-e-phone line
Did bring us a call from Dan “on cloud nine”
His dear La-dy, (pause) had a ba-bee,
Yes, a girl, and her name it was Ra-chel.
Oh “cuz” num-ber eight, with us
You real-ly rate a HOO-RAY!!
___________________________________
OUR DAVE’S GETTING MARRIED (6 verses) (Tune – The Girl That I Marry)
- The man that Deb mar-ries was quite a boy!
He ne-ver was dull so the name was Roy.
The sweet-est lit-tle guy,
With Dad’s greason his dia-pers and gleam in h;is eye.
- The man that Deb mar-ries was-a buddy to me,
We worked and had fun out on Saa-fa-ri.
And-rev- o-lu-tion and U-hu-ru,
Da-vid saw, and he felt, and his mind grew.
And now with dear Deb-bie, ‘a most hap-py fell-la’ he’ll be.
- To our bro-ther Da-vid a good-bye kiss,
Oh he and his Deb-bie we sure will miss.
When lthey; take off a-lone,
We will si-gh and cr-y with-out them at home .
- We wish them the be-est in Ill-i-nois
With lau-ghter and mu-sic and hope and joy
With-out Bet-sy, with-out Gin-n;y
To be con-stant-ly keep-ing them bu-sy
So now as they mar-ry, we pray that they hap-py will be!
- The girl that Dave mar-ries is kind and “cool”
Youcan ask Mis-ter Nun-ez at South-gate school
Or, ask her fam-i-ly
Ask Kris, Kev, Den, Pam; “J”, Sean, Claud, Steve or Ka-thy
- The girl that Dave mar-ries can cook and sew
She’s ar-tis-tic wit-ty and “on-the-go”
But the main thing, why we love her
Is her Nat-ur-al-ness, THIS WE PRE-FER
Soto Deb-bie, Dave’s “bee-bie” it’s “wel-come, much love and whoo-pie!”
___________________________________________
CAR-EM-SAN
(Carolyn, Emily, Sandra)
Tune – Alouetta
5 verses
- Car-o-lyn you give us lots of pleas-ure
You are al-ways sweet, smart, strong and sure
Sweet, smart, strong and sure you say?
Yes sir-ee! And day-by-day.
Day-by-day? That’s what we say
Sweet and smart? As a “dart”. A h h h
2. E-mi-ly you’re real-ly quite a book-worm
Bet-ter ti-tle would be “book PY-THON”
Gob-bling up the books so fast,
Vo-ca-bu-la-ry, its VAST!
Gob-bling fast, speaking vast,
WRI-TER, your die is cast. A h h
3. San-dra you were born to be in-ven-tor
Like your great great grand-mo-ther be-fore.
PIL-ing, PULL-ing, PUSH-ing things
‘ma-gi-na-tion, it has wings.
Ed-i-son, Gra-ham Bell
Sank-dra’ll do, just as well. A h h h
4. CAR-EM-SAN you tra-veled West Af-ri-que (‘ku’)
Es-ca-pades were tru-ly MAG-NI-FIQUE! (‘feek’)
Es-ca-pades were mag-ni-fique?
Yes, and tense, and ra-ther “queek”.
Mag-ni-fuque, tense and “queek”
You sure have lots of “CHIC”! A h h (‘sheek’)
5. CAR-EM-SAN we love you with great pri-de
No self-pi-ty e-ver on your side.
CAR-LYN coach-ing stu-dent boy
EM-‘LY play-ing “Ode To Joy”
SAN-DRA spells pho-ne-tique (‘teekk’)
You three are MAG-NI-FIQUE! A h h
THINGS ARE “TODSY-TURVY” ( 6 verses)
(Todd and Betsy)
(At Luke’s birth, 1987)
(Tune – Red River Valley)
- From Rift Val-ley they said you were go-ing
Todd and Bet-sy to get a de-gree
We were hop-ing, but not real-ly know-ing
If they could real-ly reach HA-RU-SI.
2. Now dear Bet-sy she splitto West “Sa-ba-bu”
Pe-di-a-trics and psy-chi-a-try
Rut-gers saw Todd go through “bi-la- ta-bu”
And he’s now quite a “Bwa-na Ma-ji”
3. The environ-ment of love is a mix-ture
Lots of pat-ience, and some ka-zi too
Todd and Bets you’ve been paint-ing a pic-ture
Sim-ply sweet, like to-day’s “si-ku-kuu”
4. From Ka-la-cha Nai-ro-bi and Mo-shi
And Ar-u-sha and li’l La-re-do
Hopes that things will go “sawa” and “safi”
With a nice mix of work and whoop-eee!
5. Off they went to a place known as Cha-ad
They were sent there by old M.C.C.
There were times when they thought they’d go “ma-ad”
But they some-how found equanim-i-ty
6. From Nja-me-na they smug-gledin a ge-em
Hid-den sa-fely in Bet-sy’s tum-my
Then Pa-tel, he helped Bet-sy to show ’eml
That that nice gem was li’l LUKE you see.
_________________________________________
Christmas 2002 Family song.
To the tune of “Hark the Herald Angels sing”
1) Hark the Shaffer family sings
Tunes of joy and happy things.
Grandpa writes a witty song
And the family sings along.
All together we are here,
Here to share the Christmas cheer.
Tot the family tree we bring
Lots of fun and lots of zing.
Hark the Shaffer clan is here
All have come from far and near!
2) Hark the Shaffer clan can play,
Through the night and through the day,
Scategories and Ping Pong
And the scrabble games so long.
Here to celebrate our king
All to Jesus we do bring
He’s the one who we do praise
He does guide our nights and days
Hark the Shaffer clan is here!
All have come from far and near.
________________________________________
__________________
MAN FROM MURUU (John Armes)
( 8 verses.To tune “Clementine”)
- In a home by, big rock moun-tain
Place in Ken-ya, named MU-RUU
Jack and Lol-ly, eight kids jol-ly!
Stuck to-ge-ther, tight as glue.
- On the Rift at, R V AA
John en-joyed the, game rug-by
Got some coun-sel, ‘bout a girl friend
From his fu-ture, wife Gi-ni
3. John went on to, Cov’nant col-lege
Chat-a-noo-ga, without the “choo”
Climbed a tow-er, psy-chic pow-er
Gra-du-a-ted, with a view
- Joined the Air Force, took a tech course
Showed his tal-ents, quite a few
Said to Gi-ni, come to ’Gin-ia
Cause I want to, mar-ry you
- Sent to land of, Mar-tin Lu-ther
Where they hos-ted, Mom and Dad
Then to Eg-lin, there had Ei-leen
Fam-ly star-ted, all so glad.
- Things do hap-pen, sent to Ja-pan
Su-ki-ya-ki, ri-sing-sun
Then to ‘las-ka, cold and love-ly
There had Hei-di, Oh what fun
- Back to U. S., down to Tuc-son
Mas-ter Ser-geant, (sigh) fin-a-leee
Then re-tire-ment, “flags ‘n prais-es”
Then to Al-bu, quer-qu-eee.
8. Mom and Dad and, Dan and Da-vid
Such sur-prise was, sweet Lin-di
We will e-ver, stick to-ge-ther
We’re the clan that’s, M’zu-ri
- Fundi, crafts-man, I – T drafts-man
Gave his kids great, D N A
Guy from Mu-ru, guy who can-do
Guy out-stan-ding, JOHN, HOO-RAY!!!
RS Songs/May 2011
___________________________________
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINI (3 verses)
(To tune “Carry me back to old Virgin’y” Aug. 2014)
- We ce-le-brate our dear Vir-gin-ia
She helps our hopes, and our ex-pec-ta-tions grow
No one on earth could be loved more sin-cere-ly
Than Gin-i Pi-ni, the last one in the row.
2. Road to Ma-lin-di, she rode in a ham-mock
Ro-ver so full of so ma-ny peo-ple more
Co-llege and nur-sing gave wings to her ta-lents
And then in mar-riage, her life it sure did soar
3. We ce-le-brate, our dear, dear Gin-i
She made a mark, she did lift the ban-ner high
All ‘round the earth she has left her fine foot-prints
And in God’s grace she will fly, and fly, and fly.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINI !!!!
_____________________________________
OH AFRICA! (3 VERSES)
(Tune – “Dont Fence Me In”)
- Oh take me back, take me back to the coun-try that I love
OH, AF-RI-Ca,
To the plains and the peo-ple, to the moun-tains up a-bove
OH, AF-RI-CA
R.- V.- A.’s where our Dan first had fe-male it-ches
Malin-di is the place where Dave lost his brit-ches
Car-lyn, Mar-lyn, Bet-sy, Gin-ny all have roots in
OH, AF-RI-CA
- Oh take me back, take me back to Ki-ja-be on the Rift
OH, AF-RI-CA
R.-V.-A. boys were “swift”, and the Mau-Mau made us shift
OH, AF-RI-CA
It was there Mom was BIG, with three bay-be-es
Timedthem to the bloom-ing Ja-ca-ran-da tre-es
I would swap the best there is in big New York for
OH, AF-RI-CA
- Take me back, take me back to Mon-du-li in Maa-sai
OH, AF-RI-CA
Where Ra-jab and Gas-par made the best of cake and pie
OH, AF-RI-CA
With sa-fa-ris to pla-ces like Lo-li-on-do
Nai-no-ka-no-ka, yes, and Ngo-ro-ngo-ro
Si-mon-sons, Ar-u-sha school and U-hu-ru in
OH, AF-RI-CA