From the Archives: Bungalove

Bungalyrics abound; one historian claims to know of 22 songs about the beloved Bungalow. Sometimes the melodious word itself provided inspiration, as in this verse, first published in no less a mainstream magazine than Good Housekeeping, in 1909.

There’s a jingle in the jungle,
’Neath the juniper and pine,
They are mangling the tangle
Of the underbrush and vine,
And my blood is all a-tingle
At the sound of blow on blow,
As I count each single shingle
On my bosky bungalow.

There’s a jingle in the jungle,
I am counting every nail,
And my mind is bungaloaded,
Bungaloping down a trail;
And I dream of every ingle
Where I angle at my ease,
Naught to set my nerves a-jingle,
I may bungle all I please.

For I oft get bungalonely
In the mingled human drove,
And I long for bungaloafing,
In some bungalotus grove,
In a cooling bung’location
Where no troubling trails intrude,
’Neath some bungalowly rooftree
In east bungalongitude.

Oh, I think with bungaloathing
Of the strangling social swim,
Where they wrangle after bangles
Or for some new-fangled whim;
And I know by bungalogic
That is all my bungalown
That a little bungalotion
Mendeth every mortal moan!

Oh, a man that’s bungalonging
For the dingle and the loam
Is a very bungalobster
If he dangles on at home.
Catch the bungalocomotive;
If you cannot face the fee,
Why, a bungaloan’ll do it—
You can borrow it of me!

       —Burgess Johnson, 1909

The golden age of the picture postcard coincided with the popularity of the California Bungalow. Visitors sent these colorful snapshots of the sunshine life to winter-weary friends back home. “California in Winter” and “Beautiful California” were recurring themes, as were landscapes and flower gardens.