[Roger Slater]

Rose, I think pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttt is spelled pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbttt (just three t's, not four), but apart from that, right on!

[MEGAN OXFORD]

Originally posted by Gail White:
In the way of counting or skipping rhymes, we used:

Mary and Johnny, sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
How many kisses did she get?
One, two...

The "children's culture" is probably indeed dying, as video games take the place of the folk rhymes handed down through the ages.

In the way of racial songs, we had one about "the old bald-headed Chinese", which I no longer remember except for the concluding lines:
We buried him deep and he stuck out his feet,
The old bald-headed Chinese.

And this one:
My name is Solomon Levi
And my store's on Salem Street,
That's where you buy your coats and hats
And everything else that's neat.
I've second handed ulsterets*
And overcoats so fine
For all the boys that trade with me
At a hundred-and-forty-nine.
Oh Solomon Levi! Tra la la la la la la....

*God knows what an ulsteret is, but we sang it.

Also we sang the endless verses of "Found a Peanut", which ends with the hapless peanut eater shelling peanuts in hell.

"I know that "old bald-headed chinese" song. Here's how it went---
My mother, she told me to open the door for the old bald-headed chinese. So I opened the door and he fell through the floor, the old bald-headed chinese.
My mother, she told me to give me to give him a drink, the old bald-headed chinese. So I gave him a drink and he swallowed the sink, the old bald-headed chinese.
My mother, she told me to give him some cake, the old bald-headed chinese. So I gave him some cake and he ate up the plate, the old bald-headed chinese.
My mother, she told me to give him a bath, the old bald-headed chinese. ?So I gave him a bath and let out some gas, the old bald-headed chinese?.
My mother, she told me to put him to bed, the old bald-headed chinese. So I put him to bed and he chopped off his head, the old bald-headed chinese.
My mother, she told me to bury him deep, the old bald-headed chinese. So I buried him deep and he stuck up his feet, the old bald-headed chinese.

I never met anyone who knew that song.
Megan

[David Anthony]

Thanks for that, Megan.
It's good to have a record of these obscure and almost-forgotten things.

[David Anthony]

By the way,
I plan to publish a collection of these, sooner or later.
So if anyone has any more I'd be grateful to hear them, either here or by PM.

[Catherine Tufariello]

What a fun subject, and what a great idea, David. Megan, having missed this thread the first time I’m glad you resurrected it. I have a fascinating book called Folklore on the American Land, by Duncan Emrich, that includes some jump-rope rhymes in the section on children’s folklore. They were collected at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s. Here’s a sweet example. It reminds me of "Sumer is icumen in":

Blackbird whistle, woodpecker drum,
"Spring has come, Spring has come."
Cardinal sing in the maple tree,
"Spring is here for you and me."
Longer day and shorter night,
Little boy, bring out your kite.

Emrich includes others I remember from my childhood in Buffalo in the 1970s, like "Ladybug, ladybug, turn around" and a version of the one Alicia quoted way upstream, about Miss Suzie, Tiny Tim, and the lady with the alligator purse. Miss Suzie has longevity! My seven-year-old daughter, who has just gotten into jump-rope games, knows another variant of it in which Tiny Tim floats up in a soap bubble that pops at the end.

[Andrew Frisardi]

How about dumb bathroom humor? I haven't seen any of that on this thread (skimming through), but Jeez, didn't we all like it?

There's that golden oldie:

Beans beans are good for your heart,
Beans beans will make you fart.
The more you eat
The more you fart
The more you fart
The better you feel
So let's eat beans for every meal!


And a playground favorite I remember:

In days of old
When knights were bold
And there were no toilets,
You used to lay a load
Upon the road
And walk away contented.


Anybody else remember some?

[Roger Slater]

Andrew, are you sure the "toilet" one didn't go like so:

In days of old when knights were bold
and toilets were not yet invented,
they'd lay their load upon the road
and walk away contented

That's the way I learned it. Rhyming and metrical!

[Jim Hayes]

Paddy Crotty owned the local bakery here and us kids were fond of chanting;

Don't ever eat Crotty's old bread,
it will lie in your belly like lead-
your father will thunder,
your mother will wonder-
was he eating Crotty's old bread?

Obviously we were a little more precocious than some here;

In days of old a knight was bold
though frenchies weren't invented,
he wrapped his tool in cotton wool
and went to bed contented.

[Andrew Frisardi]

Bob and Jim,
Your versions of the knight-toilet poem are much better than the one from my playground.
I know I'm recalling how it actually went--clearly we were a bunch of free verse bumpkins.
It's interesting how your versions are funnier and wittier too. Rhyme and meter can do that, can't they?
Andrew

[Gail White]

Originally posted by Golias:
And of course, The farmer in the dell, but I just can't remember how that one goes beyond The wife takes a child.

G/W

It goes:

The child takes the nurse
The nurse takes the dog
The dog takes the cat
The cat takes the rat
The rat takes the cheese
The cheese stands alone

It must have taken quite a few children to play this, as it involves adding new people to the dancing line until all the chosen ones are circling around the solitary cheese (who then, I presume, becomes the next farmer).