Heard a great little bit of doggerel at a friend's birthday party:"...make new friends but keep the old, the new are silver, the others gold..." Any one know the source or exact wording?

Dear CC: I found this on the internet, but the poster did not name the song:

A popular song says to "make new friends/ but keep the old/one is silver/the other gold."
Friends really are treasures - as treasured as gold and silver. Some friends become
almost part of the family, often because of the length of time of that friendship Others
enter late in life but become treasured for the rol they play, even though the time
of that friendship may be short.

I remember, once upon a time, of troy's writing about this old song. She identified it as one in the Girls Scouts' songbook. I don't know of its origins. However, I learned it at a Girl Scout camp, Camp Pocohotas, when I was seven years old, pretty near fifty years ago. Although very simple, it can be sung as a round, but not a very interesting one--still, effective. It requires about a hundred scouts sitting around a huge campfire. The song goes round and round the campfire, and there's a mesmerizing quality to it.

:"...make new friends but keep the old, the new are silver, the others gold..."

Girl Scouts! This is the song we would sing when someone would "fly up" from Brownies to Junior Scout. You would get a new pin, one was silver, and the new one was gold. I know I'm not the only one on the board that knows this, hi of troy! but I didn't know if she remembers it as the "fly up" song or just a song we sang in Girl Scouts.

Another Canuck! C'est jolly good, c'est tres bien, oui oui. It's jolly good, it's very good, yes yes.

Welcome a-Board, Casey-Canada!

(or, whoops, I could be jumping to conclusions here - which reminds me, has anyone read the excellent The Phantom Toll Booth? great book, great fun! - this new "stranger" might NOT be from Canada....thought I might be safe in assuming so though. Hope I have not made an ass of u and me!)

Thanx for all the help. Yes, I AM CANADIAN (as in a popular TV beer ad) so Girl Scouts don't mean much to me and I was a Girl Guide, never a Brownie so that's how I missed the song, I guess.

Girl Scouts, Girl Guides, potayto, potahto....

I'm Canadian too, and was a Girl Guide - but I was a Brownie first. Don't remember that song being sung as I flew up, so maybe it's a US'n thing - but I do remember that song from Brownies and Guides - along with many other wonderful campfire songs.

Do US'n Girl Guides/Scouts sing "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver" or is that a uniquely Canajun song?

Do US'n Girl Guides/Scouts sing "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver" or is that a uniquely Canajun song?

It isn't an exclusively Guide/Scout/Brownie song - I was never in any of those groups, but I remember learning it in grade 5 music class.

modestgoddess asks: Do US'n Girl Guides/Scouts sing "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver" or is that a uniquely Canajun song?

And boronia answers: It isn't an exclusively Guide/Scout/Brownie song - I was never in any of those groups, but I remember learning it in grade 5 music class.

And I have never heard of the song, but since you are both Canadian and this is a song about "silver birches" and "beavers", I would take a WAG that it is a Canadian song!

But modgod....the songs in scouts were great! Anyone remember "The Bear Song"? The other day...I met a bear...up in the woods...a way up there....

Ah, boronia, you do remind me....a roomful of students just beginning to learn the recorder, hooting away dolefully at exactly that song!

Angel, I think you are right. Certainly the song shows up in that wretched God-awful scum-sucking excuse for a "Canadian" movie, Men With Brooms (o God, please nobody go and see it, it's just awful - I went because I had a free pass and I was soooo glad I hadn't paid for it). It's quite lovely really (the song, not the movie!), if a bit dirge-like in melody:

Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose wanders at will
Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more
Boom diddy boom-boom boom diddy boom-boom boom diddy boom-boom-boom

Okay, the boom-diddies are a bit of a laugh!

Reminds me of a moment I take some pride in, because I was actually witty on the spot! I was at a meeting, and during the inevitable socializing beforehand, someone revealed that a prostitute ring was recently busted near her and her husband's cottage (so first I made a joke about her admiring all the pretty red lanterns the neighbours had up!). Then we had the meeting....then at a break, the subject came up again, and someone who hadn't heard the original discussion, asked where the prostitute ring had been?

Me: Near Michele's cottage.
Him: You could sing a song about that - Land of the silver birch....But you'd have to rewrite it.
Me: No you wouldn't - the next line, after all, is "home of the beaver".....

the prostitute ring ... "home of the beaver"

Where the mighty moose wanders ... I will come once more ... Boom diddy boom-boom boom diddy boom-boom boom diddy boom-boom-BOOM

No you wouldn't - the next line, after all, is "home of the beaver".....

Were you then pelted with laughter? Of course, anyone who has ever flown in Canada knows that a Beaver is an aeroplane made by DeHaviland Canada for BUSH pilots.

....BUSH pilots....

who wouldn't be bush pilots if they didn't love to bushwhack....[wicked grin-e]