Still More Reasons to Stay Single

I actually heard a recording of this bluegrass specialty, which was required reading in a college Intro to Anthropology and Sociology class I once took. It related somehow to a unit on family relationships as seen through the eyes of different cultures. Clearly, they have a highly advanced culture in Bluegrass Country. Thanks to Homer & Jethro for recording this priceless gem on RCA Victor in 1956:

Many, many years ago when I was 23
I was married to a Wider who was purty as can be
This Wider had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her and soon they two were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life
For my daughter was my mother cause she was my father's wife
To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy

I'm my own grampa,
I'm my own grampa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grampa

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to dad
And so became my uncle though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle then that also made him brother
Of the Wider's grown up daughter who of course was my step-mother

My father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run
And he became my granchild for he was my daughters son
My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue
Because although she is my wife she's my grandmother too

I'm my own grampa,
I'm my own grampa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grampa

Oh if my wife is my grandmother then I'm her grandchild
And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild
For now I have become strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my own grandmother I'm my own grampa

I'm my own grampa,
I'm my own grampa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grampa