A Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork... (1948); "Never been to Yale"

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In a message dated  Fri, 28 Jan 2005 20:39:39 -0800,  howard schrager
<prncpmprnckl at YAHOO.COM> writes:

>  Subject: A Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork...That's how you spell
> New  York

>  Does anyone know the origin of the above street rhyme and its mate,
Chicken
> in the Car and the Car Can't Go... That's how you spell Chicago?

I'm working on them. It's not like Chicago or New York pay me a lot of money for this!



Author Withers, Carl, comp.
Title A rocket in my pocket, the rhymes and chants of young Americans. Illustrated by Susanne Suba.
Imprint [New York] H. Holt [c1948]


Pg. 101:
A knife and a fork
A bottle and a cork
That's the way
To spell NEW YORK.

Pg. 102:
Chicken in the car
And the car won't go
That's the way to spell
CHICAGO.

Lots more of interest here!

Pg. 3:
I says, you says,
We all want ices.

Pg. 11:
Girls are dandy,
Made of candy--
That's what little irls are made of.
Boys are rotten,
Made of cotton--
That's what little boys are made of.

Pg. 15:
I've got a rocket
In my pocket;
I cannot stop to play.
Away it goes!
I've burnt my toes.
It's Independence Day.

Pg. 16:
I love my wife and I love my baby.
I love my biscuits sopped in gravy.

Pg. 40:
Charlie Chuck
Married a duck
Duck died
Charlied cried.

Pg. 42:
Beef and bacon's out of season;
I want a knife to eat my peas on.

Pg. 67:
Apple on a stick
Makes me sick;
Gives me aa stomache ache.
Two, four, six.

Pg. 67:
I should worry, I should care,
I should marry a millionaire;
He should die, I should cry--
Then I'd marry a richer guy.

Pg. 77:
Eat fresh fried fish free at the fish fry.

Pg. 128:
I'm rubber and you're glue.
What you say to me will bounce back and stick to you.

Pg. 159:
You be the ice cream, I'll be the freezer.
You be the lemon and I'll be the squeezer.

Pg. 163:
U R
2 good
2 B
4 got 10. (You are too good to be forgotten.)

Pg. 168:
I made you look, I made you look.
I made you buy a penny book.

Pg. 172:
Laugh before you eat,
Cry before you sleep.
Touch black, touch black!
You'll never get it back.

Pg. 175:
If you stub your tow,
You're bound to meet your beau.

Pg. 193:
Oh, you may drive a horse to water,
But a pencil must be lead.

--------------------------------------------------------------
"NEVER BEEN TO YALE"

MISS MARY MAC
ALL DRESSED IN BLACK:
TONGUE TWISTERS, JUMP-ROPE THYMES AND OTHER CHILDREN'S LORE FROM NEW ENGLAND
by Scott E. Hastings, Jr.
Little Rock, AK: August Houst Publishers, Inc.
1990

This is a fine collection, but no dates are given. (As with much of this stuff.) Here's one for Yale.

Pg. 115:
I've never been to Paris, I've never been to Yale,
The only place I've ever been is the good old county jail.
One day when I was sleeping I looked upon the wall,
The quiddys (_cooties?_) and the bedbugs were having a game of ball.
The score was two to zero, the quiddys were ahead
The bedbugs hit a homerun and knocked me out of bed!