Some of these rhymes were an important outlet for anger among children. Spankings, beatings, and the incredible monotony of sitting at a desk most of the schoolday made for an awful lot of repressed childhood anger. Singing these songs was exhilarating, and they were conceived before television, before the concept that it should be unnecessary to physically defend yourself against attacks by other children your own age. If you never learned how fight (girl or boy), you were at a terrible disadvantage and certainly likely to become someone's victim on the way home from school one day.
"Pick on someone your own size!" was a common retort. Confronted with physical intimidation on a regular basis, children were hardly expected to keep their taunts to themselves!
The most common taunt of all was this, and it was always in self-defense:
Sticks and stones will break my bones,
but names will never hurt me!
This was sung to the old tune:
Cheer, cheer, cheer, the school is burning down!
Cheer, cheer, cheer, it's burning to the ground!
Cheer, cheer, cheer, Miss Brice is turning brown!
There'll be a hot time in the old school tonight.
This was chanted rather than sung:
Lizzie Borden took an axe,
gave her mother forty wacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave her father forty-one!
Terese
PS. How about the old retort, "It's a free country!" whenever anyone suggested or demanded you adhere to their personal rules.
[This message has been edited by Terese Coe (edited May 10, 2006).]
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