childhood rhymes

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 31, 2004, at 9:06 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: childhood rhymes
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> --------
>
> We learned our 4-and-20 rhyme from our mother, so it must date to the
> early
> 20th c. at least.  I never thought of it as a girly game, but maybe it
> was.  And one correction to my ageing memory:  I didn't bounce the ball
> continuously; rather, I'd bounce a little rubber ball four times and
> catch
> it on the fifth (shoe, door, sticks, etc.)--until the 21, 22 two-line
> set,
> when I couldn't stop bouncing until the end (half-past TWO), after 10
> bounces.  The pressure really built in the last quatrain, when about 20
> bounces had to be sustained before my fist could grab the ball in
> triumph.  Novices would stop at 19, 20--which is maybe why most people
> only
> know the rhyme to that point!
>
> I don't know the jumping over versions you mention.  And I never played
> hopscotch, but jacks?  My brothers taught me that!

Your brothers must be pretty cool guys, as well as being totally secure
in their masculinity!;-)

-Wilson Gray

>
> At 04:22 PM 7/31/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>> On Jul 31, 2004, at 11:32 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: childhood rhymes
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>> --------
>>>
>>> I only know the 4-and-20 rhyme as the ending of "One, two, buckle my
>>> shoe,"
>>> which we chanted while trying to bounce a ball non-stop without
>>> grasping it
>>> or losing it (I can still do it!).  Let's see if I can remember it:
>>>
>>> One, two, buckle my shoe
>>> Three, four, shut the door
>>> Five, six, pick up sticks
>>> Seven, eight, lay them straight
>>> Nine, ten, a big fat hen
>>> Eleven, twelve, dig and delve [incomprehensible to us kids, of
>>> course]
>>> Thirteen, fourteen, maids a-courting
>>> Fifteen, sixteen, maids a-kissing
>>> Seventeen, eighteen, maids a-waiting
>>> Nineteen, twenty, the larder is empty
>>> Twenty-one, twenty-two, my old shoe,
>>> dressed in blue, died last night at half-past two
>>> Twenty-three, twenty-four, last night at half-past four
>>> twenty-four burglars came up to my door;
>>> I opened the door and let them in;
>>> I knocked them down with a rolling pin!
>>
>> *Very* interesting! I know "One, Two" only as literature. All the
>> published versions that I've had read to me or have read for myself
>> have ended at 20.
>>
>> Speaking of girls' games, is anyone else familiar with "One, Two,
>> Three, O'Leary" and/or "Heel, Toe, Stomp, and Over"? These are the
>> same
>> game. "One, Two" is the white version and "Heel, Toe" is the black
>> version. Back in the '40's in Saint Louis, this game was played by
>> pre-adolescent girls. While playing the game, the girls chanted the
>> words sing-song style, with both whites and blacks using the same
>> tune.
>> The game itself involved bouncing a ball, usually a tennis ball, in
>> time with each syllable of the chant while, at the same time,
>> performing the foot-and-leg actions described in the black version. At
>> "O'Leary/and Over," the girl swung the leg of her choice over the ball
>> as it rebounded from the sidewalk, repeating ad infinitum. Girls
>> usually used this as a time-killer when they had nothing else to do.
>> As
>> a consequence, I can't remember ever seeing a girl play this who was
>> other than expert at it, able to mix and match hands, feet, and legs
>> at
>> will. The chants had words beyond those supplied. Unfortunately, I was
>> a pre-adolescent boy at the time and the game was as girly as
>> hopscotch
>> or jacks. So I paid no heed to the words beyond the opening line. "Oh.
>> A girl." Mind goes blank, turns to thoughts of more boyly pursuits.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> At 11:47 PM 7/30/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Wilson,
>>>>>
>>>>> When the game was over did you call ally ally outs in free like we
>>>>> did
>>>>> in
>>>>> southern Illinois?
>>>>>
>>>>> Page Stephens
>>>>
>>>> Strange as it may seem, this is not a part of
>>>> hide-and-seek/hide-and-go-seek [I myself say "hide-and-seek," but
>>>> I've
>>>> heard "hide-and-go-seek" from so many different people in so many
>>>> different places and read it in so many different kinds of
>>>> publications
>>>> that I can't consider the "go" version to be "wrong," though, of
>>>> course, I'd like to;-)] as I know it. The game simply continued till
>>>> the last person out was caught or got home free. Some time in the
>>>> distant past - in the '60's, perhaps? - I read an article about the
>>>> derivation of "olly olly ox in free" from "all the, all the outs in
>>>> free." That was the first that I had ever heard of it.
>>>>
>>>> Now, I'm going to return your serve. Did "it" chant a sing-song
>>>> rhyme
>>>> or merely count up to a certain number? The only place that I've
>>>> lived
>>>> where the chant is used is in East Texas. However, I have
>>>> irrefutable
>>>> evidence that it is used elsewhere in the South, almost certainly in
>>>> Memphis, TN, though I can't verify this.
>>>>
>>>> The chant is:
>>>>
>>>> Last night, night before
>>>> Twenty-four robbers at my door
>>>> I opened the door
>>>> I let them in
>>>> I hit them in the head with a rolling pin
>>>> All hid?
>>>>
>>>> The evidence is:
>>>>
>>>> In 1961, a band calling itself The Mar-Keys, like the Bar-Kays a
>>>> spin-off from the much-better-known band, Booker T and the M.G.'s,
>>>> was
>>>> formed in Memphis, TN. Their first and only hit was an instrumental
>>>> entitled "Last Night." If you turned this record over, like, to the
>>>> flip side, there you found another instrumental, entitled, "Night
>>>> Before"! Coincidence? I think not.
>>>>
>>>> -Wilson Gray
>