Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Tight

[Wilson Gray]

Here's a version that I learned in the first grade (1942) in St. Louis:

Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me-Tight
Went over the hill to see the fight
Adam and Eve came back that night
Who stayed to see the fight?

-Wilson Gray

On Mar 4, 2005, at 7:55 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Tight
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I believe that a Warner Bros. cartoon from ca 1950 has Bugs Bunny
> chanting,
>
> Acka backa soda cracka,
> Acka backa boo!
> Acka backa soda cracka,
> Out goes you!
>
> JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Tight
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:36:55 -0600, Dan Goodman 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
>
>
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