I’ve mentioned Jeremy before. He’s the English guy I knew in the 70’s. We were going to get married, but didn’t.

I’ve not mentioned his stroke – at least not here. About 9 years ago he was taking a walk and had a stroke up on a moor. I didn’t know the taking a walk on the moor part – I found that out today when I heard he’d been honored by the British Stroke Association with a Life After Stroke award in art.

That got me thinking about Ilkely Moor. Have you seen the moors of Yorkshire? They are desolate, but have an uncanny beauty – something that haunts you when you leave them. Ilkely Moor is just another moor, but there is a Yorkshire folk song written about it.

Basically it’s about a guy who dated someone else’s girlfriend but forgot to wear a hat on the moor while he was dating the girl. His friend warns him that if he continues to go on the moor without a hat he may get a cold, die, and be eaten by worms that in turn are eaten by ducks. The guy whose girlfriend he dated may the duck and “get his own back”. Kinda gross, I know, but funny too. I have a tea-towel with the words and some cartoony drawings.

Here are the lyrics. A YouTube video of a bunch of rowdy Yorkshiremen singing the song follows.