When I was a kid, I loved the song There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly sung by the delightful Burl Ives.
It tells the story of an old lady who swallows increasingly larger animals – a fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, cow, and horse – to catch the previous one.
Burl Ives in the studio with a young boy in 1950. Photo: Library of Congress, Creative Commons.
It was often a feature song on the Sunday morning children’s request radio programme on 1ZB sandwiched in by stories like Peter and the Wolf, Diana and the Golden Apple, Old Yella, Flick the Fire Engine etc.
Mary Anne Gill
The song concludes with the inevitable, “There was an old lady who swallowed a horse … She’s dead, of course!”.
I was reminded of the song last week when the Asthma + Respiratory Foundation welcomed the first medically-approved quit vaping product and renewed calls for tougher laws.
The product will support New Zealanders hooked on vaping, the foundation said.
A friend of mine had been smoking since she was 13 – in her 50s she had tried everything to quit – hypnosis, cold turkey, patches, gum and even counselling as she had some childhood issues which contributed to her starting in the first place.
Vaping. pexels.com
Within weeks vaping had worked, she told me proudly as she sucked on a vape which then produced a thick cloud of fog which dissipated but left a scented aroma in the air.
To me it seemed she had the vape in her mouth much longer than she ever had a cigarette probably because it was more socially acceptable. But she had given up smoking!
Vaping, of course, came about to help New Zealanders quit smoking. Nicotine is addictive and giving up was problematic for most people, particularly those who started when there was less education about the dangers.
Think wars when military leaders actively encouraged soldiers to smoke to boost their morale, combat boredom and ease stress. So, issuing smokes was as important as food and water.
Think of the movie stars of the day – John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart. Smoking wasn’t just accepted; it was glamourised.
Peer pressure or social influence is the major reason people started smoking and that developed into addiction.
We’ve always been quick to normalise harmful habits when they suit us.
Like the old lady in the song, each time we tried to fix one problem, we swallowed something bigger and hoped it would sort itself out.
Vaping was meant to be the bird that caught the spider – a tidy solution to an untidy habit. Instead, it has become its own creature, growing far beyond what anyone intended.
The truth is, we didn’t just watch it happen; we opened the door, stocked the shelves, cut the ribbons, and pretended the consequences wouldn’t follow. If our teenagers are now choking on a new addiction, it’s because we handed it to them – and we’ve only ourselves to blame.
Now we’re shocked the horse has arrived.
Old lady swallowed a horse?
Old lady swallowed a fly
