Dem Bones, Dem Bones

This past week I was able to attend, for the first time in the 8 1/2 years I have been a librarian, the TASL convention. In case you’re just dying to know, TASL, pronounced tassel, is an acronym for Tennessee Association of School Librarians. A friend from another school and I were able to go together and share a room (the rooms at the Embassy are super nice) which helped to cut our expenses in half.

I must admit that the lure of possible freebies is what initially drew me to the idea of attending. I had visions of free books dancing in my head. I did end up with one free book and, of course, several book bags, bookmarks, and enough pens that I should never run empty of ink.

While I didn’t score as much loot as I had hoped I am, nonetheless, glad I attended. I had the chance to hear some really good speakers (and one not so great speaker) and came away with a lot of useful information.

My favorite speaker was Carla McClafferty, award-winning author of several non-fiction books, who spoke about researching primary sources. One of her books, The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky and Wonderful X-Ray, is now on my “must have list” for our school’s library. As a side note...I thought it was somewhat ironic this morning, as I logged on to my computer and brought up the Google home page, to find that today is the 115th anniversary of the discovery of the x-ray.

Do you remember learning to name the parts of the body by singing the song referenced in Ms. McClafferty’s book's title? I do. But I had forgotten that it was actually an old spiritual song (based on some verses in Ezekiel) until today. I have tried hard to think of where or when I may have first heard it, but nothing specific comes to mind. I am quite sure, though, it was in Sunday school or VBS.

Sing it with me now (and don’t forget to add the hand motions and point to your body parts as we go)...

Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"
"Oh, hear the word of the Lord."

The toe bone connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone connected to the heel bone,
The heel bone connected to the leg bone,
The leg bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone connected to the head bone,
Oh, hear the word of the Lord!

Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun'
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'
Oh, hear the word of the Lord.

The head bone connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the leg bone,
The leg bone connected to the heel bone,
The heel bone connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone connected to the toe bone,
Oh, hear the word of the Lord!

I just realized that if I were to teach this to John-Heath and sing it with him a few times each night I might knock off five pounds by Christmas.