Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Tight

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:36:55 -0600, Dan Goodman <dsgood at IPHOUSE.COM> wrote:

>Date:    Thu, 3 Mar 2005 01:55:35 -0500
>From:    bapopik at AOL.COM
>Subject: West Virginia Folklore (1950s),
>          especially children's rhymes (Liar Liar, 1958)
>
>WEST VIRGINIA FOLKLORE, Summer 1952, vol. II. no. 4
>Pg. 13:
>Finger Games
>
>Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me-Tight
>Went down to the river to see the fight.
>Adam and Eve got home that night
>And who was left to see the fight?
>
>(When child answers "Pinch Me Tight" the other child pinches him.)
>
>In 1921, Penguin published A. E. Coppard's story collection _Adam and
>Eve and Pinch Me_, which included "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me".  The
>story presumably appeared in a magazine some time earlier.

-----
Los Angeles Times, Oct 12, 1915, p. I9
Pete said: "Say Bill, tell me this one. Adam, and Eve, and Pinch-me all
went down to bathe; Adam and Eve were drowned, now who was the one to be
saved."
Friend William gave it the mathematical observation for a moment, and then
said sprightly: "Pinch-me of course." [Ends in a fight.]
-----
Washington Post, Nov 28, 1915, p. E20
Adam and Eve and Pinch me all went out to swim -- Adam and Eve were
drowned -- Who was saved?
Nobody was likely to forget that one, after it had once been played on him.
-----

The latter appears in an article that I'm surprised Barry hasn't found
yet: "Charm of Children's Jingle Games is Mystery of Origin." It also has:

"Acker, backer, soda cracker,
Acker, backer, boo!
My father chews tobacker,
Out goes you."

(Or with the third line: "If your father chews tobacker...")

"As I was going to Salt Lake
I met a little rattlesnake,
He'd e't so much of jelly cake [or "ginger cake"]
It made his little belly ache."

"Engine number nine,
Stick your head in turpentine.
Turpentine make it shine
Engine number nine."

...etc., etc.


--Ben Zimmer