Playground/childhood rhymes with actions

[tkingdoll]

We were driving last night when I suddenly got this rhyme pop into my head:

Ibble bobble, black bobble, ibble bobble out, turn your dishcloth inside out.

Anyone remember that one? I recall it was a way of choosing people to be 'it'. My hubby had never heard it, he said they used the old favourite

Ip, dip, dog shit, you are not it.

Which set me laughing for ages. We both remembered that you had to lick your finger before starting 'ip dip' but we can't remember why.

Or you could use the classic

Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a knicker (yes, we used to say that instead of the original racist word which as a kid I didn't even know existed) by his toe. If he squeals let him go, eenie meenie miney mo.

If you were bored choosing an 'IT' for hide and seek (or ackey 1-2-3 in the 80s), there were other rhymes that you had to do stuff with.

We girls would whirl our skipping ropes in the air whilst singing

Helicopter, helicopter please come down, if you don't I'll shoot you down!

And I recall a really elaborate ball game that went

Not last night but the night before,
Twenty four robbers came knocking at the door
As I ran out to let them in,
This is what they said to me
Chinese lady turn right round
Chinese lady touch the ground
Chinese lady pick up sticks
Chinese lady do the splits.

Every line had an action, ending with doing the splits if you could.

There's one I'm trying to remember, one of them was a skipping rhyme that was about traffic. There was a line where you had to say "it went round the cooooorrrrrnnnnerrrr" whilst running round the outside and back into the rope. Anyone know that one?

Any other classics? I guess it depends where and when you grew up but I think Ip Dip was pretty universal.

I've resisted googling for any, it's much more fun to scrape them up from memory.

[Admin]

Eenie Meenie.....

I can remember when I first started school sitting in the cloakroom and the teacher wanted to choose a kid to do something. She used that rhyme, but used 'nigger', to choose someone.

This would have been 1969/70.

I also remember doing drawings in my book and the teacher would ask what it is and then write it in. I did one drawing and said it was "a black sambo" (probably got the term from my dad) and she wrote it in!

Amazing how this sort of racist language and attitude was prevalent and accepted only a generation ago.



Sorry, not meaning to shift the focus of the thread - it just reminded me of these events.

[Matt]

Ippa Dippa Dation
My Operation
How many people...
At the station.


One Potato
Two Potato
Three Potato
Four
Five Potato
Six Potato
Seven Potato
More
O-U-T spells OUT
So Out you must Go!

Law of the playground reveals more

[dee]

We used to sing at school:

Ip dip dooo
The cat's got the flu
The dog's got measles
So out goes you


(Played using 2 balls)
One two three and plainsy
Four five six and plainsy
Seven eight nine and plainsy
Ten and plainsy drop one ball

(it then repeats istelf using the word upsy, overs and dropsy - if you get my drift)

[tkingdoll]

Interesting regional variations here. Where did you guys grow up? I grew up in Redditch, Worcs.

The dog measles thing has reminded me of another one.

You had jump in scissoring movements whilst singing

Cat's got the measles, the measles, the measles,
Cat's got the measles, measles got the cat.

Then you had to push one sock down, depending on how you landed (legs crossed or uncrossed).

Did you ever have occasion to

Make friends, make friends,
Never ever break friends,
If you do you'll catch the flu and that will be the end of you.

I recall you had to link fingers whilst reciting it.

[Matt]

Similar, Link little fingers after a row and

Make up Shake up
never do it again.

Shows that you're friends once again.

[Cuddles]

(yes, we used to say that instead of the original racist word which as a kid I didn't even know existed)

"Tiger" is racist?

[Janot]

I remember this one clearly, in the school yard. The rythym is correct, and it was Huddersfield, where kids grew up very fast.

Ching Chang Chinaman, walking down the Strand
Stoney broke, wants a poke, penis in his hand.
Up comes Poxy Lil, couldn't care a rap,
Three days later, clap clap clap.

[seren]

Possibly not as fast as in Catholic schools in greater London:

We are the can-can girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear our dungarees
Upon our sexy knees
You know the boy next door
He got me on the floor
He gave me fifty pence
To go behind the fence
My mother nearly cracked
To see me get so fat
My dad was filled with joy
It was a baby boy.



There was another one that went:

We are the can can girls
We don't wear our hair in curls
We don't smoke, we don't drink
That is what our parents think
Queen does a curtsey,
King does a bow,
Boys go *kiss kiss*,
Girls go wow!
and on "wow" we all jumped off the bench.

The one about the "coooooorner" was

"Bumper car, bumper car, number 48 whizzing round the cooooorner" in my school.

My boyfriend gave me an apple, my boyfriend gave me a pear.
My boyfriend gave me a kiss on the lips and threw me down the stair.
I gave him back his apple, I gave him back his pear.
I gave him back his kiss on the lips and I threw him down the stair.


There was one hand-clap game I'll never forget- the clapping was slightly different than usual and it went (I've no idea how it was supposed to be spelled!):

Om Pompeii
Cally-ey
Cally oski
Om Pompeii
Cally-ey
Mr Turnip
Apple Turnip
Mr Turnip
Boom boom.

I am fairly sure this was a corruption of something that at one time actually made some kind of sense! In fact I think a number of ours were originally full songs that someone had half picked up. Consider the bizarre ending on this one:

I went to a Chinese restaurant
To buy a loaf of bread bread bread
He wrapped it up in a five pound note
and this is what he said said said
My name is Elvis Presley....
...[my mind goes blank here until]
Girls are sexy
sitting in the back seat drinking Pepsi
Five days later they [who??] got married
Om tiddly om pomp, pom pom!

Now I know the whole thing doesn't make much sense, but still, that's a poor conclusion, right? Can't be right.

[smurfette]

slight variation on the can-can girls

"we are the can-can girls,
we wear our hiar in curls,
we wear our dungarees
to show our groovy knees,
that's our neighbour there,
we saw him in the bare
while he was having a shower and washing his hair"

does anyone remember "down by the bramble bushes?" or something like that? im sure it ended in "row trow row your boat" but im not sure how it got to that from the bramble bushes!

[skbuncks]

There is one which has stuck with me from childhood (70s to 80s). Goes like this:

Eenie meenie manna racca rare rar dommy knacker chicker pocker ram dam push off ???

I have no idea what it means (or even if it means anything) or what the correct spellings are. Would more than welcome any insight into its meaning.

skb

[skbuncks]

Correction to my dipping rhyme

Eenie meenie manna racca rare rar dommy knacker chicker pocker lolly popper yan tyan push off

Im from workington in cumbria and the yan and tyan are cumbric for one and two (we commonly use yan in place of one up there and I could count to 10 in cumbric when I was a kid). So we get eenie meenie ..... one two push off. Makes me wonder if the rest of it is some sort of colloquial remant of cumbric. Or it could be childish rhyming gibberish

skb

[akkim]

I remembered one when two people clap their hands together saying rymes. This is the only one I can think of. Does anyone know anymore?

Say say o' playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree slide down my rain barrell, into my cellar door, and we'll be jolly friends, forever more more more.

We were driving last night when I suddenly got this rhyme pop into my head:

Ibble bobble, black bobble, ibble bobble out, turn your dishcloth inside out.

Anyone remember that one? I recall it was a way of choosing people to be 'it'. My hubby had never heard it, he said they used the old favourite

Ip, dip, dog shit, you are not it.

Which set me laughing for ages. We both remembered that you had to lick your finger before starting 'ip dip' but we can't remember why.

Or you could use the classic

Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a knicker (yes, we used to say that instead of the original racist word which as a kid I didn't even know existed) by his toe. If he squeals let him go, eenie meenie miney mo.

If you were bored choosing an 'IT' for hide and seek (or ackey 1-2-3 in the 80s), there were other rhymes that you had to do stuff with.

We girls would whirl our skipping ropes in the air whilst singing

Helicopter, helicopter please come down, if you don't I'll shoot you down!

And I recall a really elaborate ball game that went

Not last night but the night before,
Twenty four robbers came knocking at the door
As I ran out to let them in,
This is what they said to me
Chinese lady turn right round
Chinese lady touch the ground
Chinese lady pick up sticks
Chinese lady do the splits.

Every line had an action, ending with doing the splits if you could.

There's one I'm trying to remember, one of them was a skipping rhyme that was about traffic. There was a line where you had to say "it went round the cooooorrrrrnnnnerrrr" whilst running round the outside and back into the rope. Anyone know that one?

Any other classics? I guess it depends where and when you grew up but I think Ip Dip was pretty universal.

I've resisted googling for any, it's much more fun to scrape them up from memory.

[Dubious Dick]

If you like this sort of thing check out:

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959) Iona and Peter Opie

Read many years ago, but a fascinating study of the subject