Children's folklore from Hoosier Folklore, Midwest Folklore

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 22:03:51 -0500, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>Midwest Folklore, winter 1951, vol. I, no. 4
>Pg. 254:
>Here's the church
>And there's the steeple;
>Open it up
>And see the people.
[...]
>Hoosier Folklore, March 1949, vol. VIII, no. 1
>Pg. 31:
>Here's the church
>And here's the steeple.
>Open the doors,
>And there are the people. (Ind., 2.)
>The fingers are interlaced and the hands twisted to produce the figures.
>
>References: Babcock; Brewster, 184; Newell, 138.

This was already "time-honored" in 1907, according to this non-PC account:

-----
Chicago Tribune, Mar 27, 1907, p. 6
A little southern girl was illustrating on her fingers the time honored,
"Here's the church and here's the steeple; open the door and you'll see
all the people."
"Pretty dirty people," said grandma, looking at the soiled hands.
"But they are colored people," was the quick reply.
-----



--Ben Zimmer