My Wife's Gone to the Country

An amusing postcard that draws upon the "Oh You Kid!" craze of 1909 for its humor. This card was a bit risqué for its time, suggesting that a husband might fool around with other women while his wife is away. The caption on the card comes from the song, "My Wife’s Gone to the Country! Hurrah! Hurrah!,” which was one of the "Oh You Kid!" songs published as sheet music in 1909:

My wife’s gone to the country, hurray! hurray!
She thought it best
"I need the rest"
That’s why she went away
She took the children with her, hurray! hurray!
I love my wife, but oh, you kid!
My wife’s gone away

In this age of social media, it's difficult to appreciate just how popular this--nudge, nudge, wink, wink--idea of "I love my wife, but oh, you kid!" became as it circulated in print through sheet music, postcards, and newspapers. Jody Rosen, however, documents its wide-ranging influence in a fascinating article that appeared in Slate magazine. See "How a Sexed-up Viral Hit from the Summer of '09–1909–Changed American Pop Music Forever."

For some additional postcard and sheet music examples, see my Oh You Kid! and Its Variants album.