rye quotes

Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry, Went across the border to get a drink of rye. When the rye was opened, theYanks began to sing, 'God bless America, but God save the King!'

-Anonymous
c.1919  Ditty current in Canada, referring to  Americans crossing the border to drink during Prohibition. The Duke of  Windsor, later Edward VIII, heard it during his tour of Canada (1919) and repeatedit to his father, George V, onhis return, as he recalledin A King's Story (1951).

Gin a body meet a body Comin thro'the rye, Gin a body kiss a body Need a body cry?

- Robert Burns
  'Comin thro' the rye', stanza 2.

So bye, bye, Miss American Pie, Drove my Chevy to the levee But the levee was dry. Them good old boys was drinkin' whiskeyand rye Singin' 'This'll be the day that I die.'

- Don McLean
  'American Pie'.

Anyway,I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's aroundnobody big, I mean except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliffI mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.

-J(erome) D(avid) Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye, ch.22.