A thread for comparing clapping games, jump rope rhymes, and general kids' rhymes! Did anybody else have a rhyme that told you what to do to give somebody else chills? We did that a lot at summer camp when I was teeny. Around the world in 80 days X marks the spot Comma comma comma question mark Spiders crawling up your back Blood dripping down Spiders crawling up your back Blood dripping down Tight squeeze Cool breeze Now you've got the shiveries! And you'd do whatever it said, drawing a circle or an x and pretending your hands were spiders, etc.
A version of that was in a klutz book for roadtrips? I have a fragmented memory of it being something like this: Mike is on a treasure hunt in a funny parking lot X marks the spot with a circle and a dot [needles on your neck and a pound on your back makes the blood rush down makes the blood rush down] x 3 ?? something about spiders then you get bitten?? feel the blood drip down now squeeze some oranges on your shoulders let the juice drip down let the juice drip down Then I'm pretty sure the last three lines are the same. Also, I think there was a "now guess the magic letter or I won't go on" in there somewhere and there was more joining bits somehow. Not so good for comparison since I apparently can't remember it all that well but it brought back good memories so I wanted to comment
Oh man, we had a similar but much shorter one. Criss-cross, applesauce Spiders crawling up your back Tight squeeze Cool breeze Now you've got the chills. I loved it. Best feeling. ETA: criss-cross was a big x, applesauce was a big spiral moving down, spiders was skittering fingers going up, tight squeeze on shoulders, cool breeze blowing gently on back of neck, chills was a weird thing where you turned your hands sideways and moved them up and down while thumping with alternating fingers quickly sort of like you were playing a fast riff on a keyboard.
Popular circle-clapping game at [redacted] Island Elementary School: Clap diddly oh-so Slap slap slap Oh san marico Rico rico rico Flora, flora, flora-flora-flora-flora (repeat until people screw up their clapping) Another clapping game rhyme, for 2 people: 3-6-9 Goose drank wine Monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line Line broke Monkey got choke And they all went to heaven in a little row boat SLAP CLAP!
Favorite clapping game for two people: Bo bo, ski watten totten eh eh, say boom boom boom boom (alternately, say boys are rotten, or say girls are awesome) itty bitty watten totten bo bo, ski watten totten bo bo, ski watten totten BOOM one two three four five six seven eight http://vocaroo.com/i/s1UGfw4OiNt7 It's unfortunately almost impossible to do the clapping bit by yourself using a convenient wall or whatever. If you got it right it would end satisfyingly with a snap. In high school we taught it to all our guy friends, who had not learned it in elementary school. They unanimously preferred the 'boys are rotten' variant for humor purposes. Man did we get some weird looks from teachers. The other kids seemed pretty indifferent.
The most complicated clap game I remember was ET - if I tried the clap pattern now I'd probably accidentally hit my partner, because it involved switching from clapping across to the up and down claps a lot. But the rhyme itself went: ET, (clap clap clap), ET (clap clap clap) ET from outer space, he had an ugly face Sitting in a rocker, eating Betty crocker Watching the clock go Tick tock, tick tock sha walla walla A B C D E F G You better get your grandma off of me You better get your grandma off of me Now freeze! And whoever moved first lost.
Okay there was this weird rhyme-dance thing in elementary and I have no idea what it was. (I had to look up part of it...) This is for two people standing and facing each other. Chinese checkers [I don't remember what we did for this part] I can move my body [kinda swaying your body] Chinese checkers I can do karate [knife hands and a fighting stance] Chinese checkers I can call my mommy [hand phone either ringing next to your head or by your ear] Oops I'm sorry [push the other person's shoulder] You better be sorry [cross arms, look smug] 'Cause I'm not sorry [turn head away] Itty bitty bubble gum [start crisscrossing your legs] A boy likes you! [Whether your legs ended open or crossed said whether someone liked you. Could never remember which was which though] Edit: typos and clarity
around the world in 80 days x marks the spot four little circles and a red dot spiders crawl up and they bite you bite you spiders crawl up and they bite you bite you .....i know there was more but it's been five years or so since i last did it and my memory from back then is iffy at best. i think it ended with the same three lines you've got but i could be wrong.
In Girl Scouts we chanted Herman The Worm really frequently and I was not previously aware that there were version that didn't involve Herman cannibalizing his family but apparently there are. We just happened to do the most fucked-up version :D
The nonsense-partially-possibly-urdu-influenced (I went to school in a very muslim area) rhyme we used to used to use to pick 'it' - Eenie-meenie-miney-moe Onna-ama-kolla-ko Eka-dika-lollipoppa Om-bom-bush Not because you're dir-ty Not because you're clean Just because you kissed a boy Behind the mag-a-zine!
A lot of the kids rhymes we did when i was younger were pretty standard, london bridge is falling down, ring around the rosie, that sort of thing. There was one jump roping song i really liked though, it went like this: Cinderella, dressed in yella Went upstairs to kiss her fella Instead of a prince, she found a snake! How many doctors did it take? [Insert counting here] I once made it to a hundred and it was super cool
That was probably the original line, the girl who brought it to our school couldnt quite remember how it went. I think its super cool how most if not all of these are spread by word of mouth. Ring around the rosie and london bridge is falling down are both really old and based on tragic things, but you can still hear kids today singing about it, remembering these events in a way.
I THINK ABOUT CHILDREN'S RHYMES A LOT SO BEAR WITH ME HERE ahh when i was in competitive swimming we used to do all kinds of rhyme games that involved drawing on backs or physical stuff a favourite was a slightly longer variation on the criss-cross applesauce rhyme: criss cross, applesauce spiders crawling up your back spiders here spiders there spiders even in your hair tight squeeze cool breeze now you've got the shiveries! AND a, uh, considerably darker version of that treasure hunt rhyme: Spoiler: long concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry knife in the back and the blood runs down knife in the back and the blood runs down concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry egg in the hair and the yolk runs down egg in the hair and the yolk runs down concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry nails in the back and the blood runs down nails in the back and the blood runs down concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry concentrate concentrate people die, babies cry in retrospect that is super fucked up, but it was all about those sweet sweet tingly feelings Miss Mary!! there are dozens of variations but the one that i learned was: Spoiler: long Miss Mary had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell miss Mary went to heaven, the steamboat went to hello operator, please give me number nine, and if you disconnect me, I'll kick you in Behind the yellow curtain, there was a piece of glass miss Mary sat upon it, and broke her little Ask me no more questions, I'll tell you no more lies the boys are in the bathroom, zipping up their Flies are in the city, bees are in the park miss Mary and her boyfriend were kissing in the D - A - R - K darker than the ocean, darker than the sea, darker than the underpants my mommy puts on me my mother is Godzilla, my pa is king Kong, my sister is the stupid one who taught me this dumb song OR you all know my ma you all know my pa you all know my sister with the alligator bra and then there was brick wall waterfall which was a catty little clapping/hand motions game Spoiler brick wall, waterfall [name] thinks they got it all but they don't and I do so BOOM with that attitude peace, punch, captain crunch I got something you can't touch bang bang choo-choo train wind me up I'll do my thing Reese's pieces, seven up, you mess with me, I'll mess you up and a circle clapping game! Stella Ella ola I think it was called. another one with a million variations but i knew it as: Spoiler Stella Ella ola, clap clap clap sing es chigo chigo, chigo chigo chap, sing es alla dora, ballo, ballo, the toilet overflows say one two three four five! then there was a skipping game?? i can't remember all of it Spoiler had a little sports car 248 went around the cor-ner....... slammed on the brakes police man caught me put me in jail all i had to drink was ginger ale how many bottles did i get? 1, 2, 3, etc etc miss Mary Mack! i think a crucial part of the rhyme got left out in the silly version i learned because it skips a certain logical step Spoiler miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack all dressed in black, black, black with silver buttons, buttons, buttons all down her back, back, back she asked her mom, mom, mom for fifty cents, cents, cents to watch the boys, boys, boys jump over the fence, fence, fence they jumped so high, high, high they touched the sky, sky, sky and they never came back, back, back until July, ly, ly! and a mean little 'lol girly girls are stupid' rhyme Spoiler oh! my god! i just got a manicure! the sun! the glare! it's messing up my pretty hair twenty-six, thirty-four, i don't know the stupid score. come on team! fight fight fight! gee i hope i look alright and then there are endless camp songs and cheers OH okay one more even though it doesn't really fit the theme because it was a big part of my childhood. my first swim team had this cheer that we did at every swim meet, as loudly as possible. it was nonsense, i THINK, although it's just as likely that it's a bastardized version of a real language. it was a back and forth cheer with one person leading. ANYWAY it was super fun: Spoiler: gonna be fun to try to transcribe this OO! OLE OLE (oo! ole ole) OLE A TIKI TONGA (ole a tiki tonga) O WASA WASA WASA (o wasa wasa wasa) OO, ALEYAH LEYAH WAH (oo, aleyah leyah wah) repeated at least three times with things like "A LITTLE BIT LOOUU-DER!!" and "A LITTLE BIT STRON-GER!!" and my favourite, "A LITTLE BIT FAAAS-TER!!" mixed in between rounds sorry for dumping this all here i just think about old rhymes and chants and games SO MUCH, children's culture is SO INTERESTING
OH SHIT wait i just remembered another game we played at swim meets it wasn't a rhyme so much as it was a...... hm, a little ritual?? i guess?? it worked best standing. you would have one person shut their eyes and another person behind them, and they would slooooowly sway the front person back and forth and describe a scene which was usually like: 'you're standing on the roof of the tallest building you've ever seen, blah-blah elaborate purple prose description of the colours and feelings, blah blah you look down and your stomach drops, you've never been this high up, blah blah, but your feet are so heavy, it's like you're rooted to the ground, nothing can move you, your feet are like lead' all in this super soothing voice, geeently swaying them back and forth and encouraging them to relax as much as possible and THEN 'something something PUSHES YOU OFF THE ROOF' and they'd shove the person's shoulders roughly but keep hold of them so they didn't fall, and the point of all of it was to ask at the end, 'what colour did you see (when i caused your life to flash before your eyes)?' and i guess we sort of had this implicit understanding of what colour meant what, like we all agreed red was bad. it was weird but fun
Children's spoken myths and histories have always fascinated me. It's a little bit off-topic, but the reason I started being interested in things like old ghost stories and urban legends, as well as memetic motifs in stories was because I went to primary school in both the UK and Australia. I heard the same ghost stories in both playgrounds, with only very minor differences. The kids that told me them were both speaking english, true, but neither side had relatives in common until you went right back to the first aussie colonial times, way before things like cars and haunted barbie dolls.
Like applechime this is something I legit think about a lot, like I find it fascinating. I recognized a lot of these that people posted! Local variation on "now you've got the shivers" Spoiler Round the world in 80 days, X marks the spot, Three big boulders, One tiny dot, Spiders crawl up your back They bite you! They bite you! Spiders crawl down your back They bite you! They bite you! Brain freeze, cool breeze, Now you've got the, now you've got the chills! there's a jump rope game I half remember about George Washington crossing the Delaware, I only remember the count went ONE! TWO! THREE! Independence! cause Independence Day is the Fourth of July. So you had to say Independence every multiple of four. Spoiler: hand clap games Mailman, mailman, do your duty Here comes Miss American Beauty She can do the pom poms, she can do the twist But best of all, she can kiss kiss kiss K! I! S! S! Lemonade, crunchy ice Stir it once, stir it twice (that was it, the pattern was simple too, so it was mostly played while waiting for something) ABC Hit it! That's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh (as above) There were also Concentration and Slide, which had no rhymes and very complex patterns that I don't know how to explain in text Spoiler: others Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish? (Played in a group. The person who got landed on said a number, it was counted around the circle, and the person who was landed on was out. Usually used as a more sophisticated version of eenie meenie miney moe, for determining play order for another game) Tarzan, jungle man, swinging from a rubber band Slips and falls and and breaks his back, what color is his splat? (Similar to the above, except the given color was spelled out. More often played for its own sake, cause kids think violence is funny) The dilly dally duck goes quack quack quack From Sanarina, rina, rina, rina Four up, four up, one two three four QUACK! (Also played in a circle, hands laid on each other's, so you could slap each other's palms in rhythm. If you got hit on QUACK you were out There's also a lot of Girl Scout songs and other things but this post is already so long :0
The elementary school i went to had an ABC one too but it was way longer... i think it was something like Spoiler ABC Easy as one two three My mommy takes care of me My daddy watches MTV Ooh, ah, i wanna piece of pie Pie too sweet i wanna piece of meat Meat too red i wanna go to bed Bed not made i want some lemonade Lemonade too sour i wanna take a shower ...i think it continued like that for a while but i cant remember the other lines
I JUST GOOGLED IT, and my "Dilly Dally Duck" is a variation on "Stella Ella Ola" - same tune and mode of play. Is one a corruption of the other, or are they just two songs with the same tune? Also I had variations of most of the games here - "Patty Cake" and "Miss Mary Mack," which I'd say everyone knows, "Down Down Baby," "Chinese Bakery" (for us it was "Chinese Restuarant" and it was pretty racist cause it involved pulling at the corners of your eyes in imitation of epicanthal folds. I was hesitant to put it in my first post for that reason.) and "Concentration 64" which I mentioned upthread. That link also has videos
