Ha! Thanks, tsuwm! I had a sneaking suspicion my childhood impression of the song was probably incorrect. I've never researched the song, never read the lyrics, so I was writing on a wing and a prayer and figured I'd be corrected. But it's humorous to think how I've imagined the picture in the song all these many years: Mary Ann at the seaside with the sand slipping away as the waves hit it. Yep, that's a monkeygrin fersure!