"Pepper, salt, mustard, cider, vinegar" (1881)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

I've been adding to my web site, and I was looking for "double Dutch."
Perhaps I'll post that here.

"Pepper, salt, mustard, cider, vinegar" appears to be an early, Fred
Shapiro-worthy food-based rope-jumping rhyme. Who knew it went back to  1881?

Anything under "pepper" in the revised OED? Perhaps it should be added  there.


1 April 1881, Reno (NV) <i>Evening Gazette</i>, pg. 1, col.  1:
<i>DIED FROM JUMPING ROPE.</i>
(...)
>From the New York Sun.
(...)
Another of Rachel's little companions said: "She used to be very fond of
jumping what we call 'pepper, salt, mustard, cider, vinegar,' That is when we
being to jump slow, and keep jumping faster until we get to vinegar, when you
have to jump as fast as you can."



27 April 1941, New York <i>Times</i>, pg. SM9:
The chant for the single rope jump is still, "Pepper, salt, mustard, cider,
vinegar!"
Then the fast count. These kids are jumping "Double Dutch," the two-rope
game.


21 April 1944, New York <i>Times</i>, pg. 3:
<i>Air Hero Provides Theme</i>
<i>For Rope-Jumping Rhyme</i>

The chant of "Pepper, salt, mustard, cider, vinegar," which for generations
has timed the jump-rope game of youngsters, has become a war casualty - at
least  in Brooklyn.

Here is what a group of girls was heard singing yesterday at Ninth Avenue
and Fifty-ninth Street as the rope went 'round and 'round:

Major Bong is a very fine man,
He shoots down all the Japs he can.
How many Zeros will he get today?
Let's count them up, what do you say?
One-two-three-four, etc.