Jodys

In military tradition, Jody was the guy who stayed home when all the other young men enlisted/drafted, went to war. He was the one who stole the girlfriend, sweetheart. The one who….

You get the idea.

A Jody is a cadence call used for marching or running in formation. It is usually called by one person. Most commonly the rest of the formation repeats each line or has a standard response.

There are dozens of Jodys, some being relatively universal, others rather specific to branch, specialty or service. Most traditionally were done by men with the expected result of not being fit to call in public places. With the newer/better militaries (and I do not object in this case) most have been scrubbed of the worst sexual language, put-downs and slurs. None of those I learned in the 70s or early 80s pass today’s standards.

There are a few which have stood the test of time –
“They say that in the Army…

with an example being:

They say that in the Army, the coffee’s mighty fine
It looks like dirty water and tastes like turpentine

There had been one rolling around in my brain at the beginning of the week which starts with –
I don’t know, but I’ve been told

with the classic being

I don’t know, but I’ve been told
the streets of Heaven are paved with gold.

Since I have had too much waiting time on my hands – I am working my way down a list of the most common lines and developing a local version. I might just send it to the cadre as a present. We do enough formation marching around here in getting from assembly areas to training classrooms it might just be fun!

I don’t know, but I’ve been told –
the streets of Benning are paved with gold.
Now – here I am at CRC
and all I see are rocks and trees.

I don’t know but I’ve been told
the chow is hot while the beer is cold
But here I am at CRC
and all I get are MREs

I don’t know but I’ve been told
the cadre here is bright and bold
So here I am at CRC
Can’t figure what they want of me

I don’t know but I’ve been told
you live this way you won’t grow old
Training here at CRC
all this gear is killing me

to be continued!