[Ads-l] exploration of eeny meenie miney etc.

[Joel Berson]

(Jon wrote me off-list that he grew up with only the "kitten" version.)

I don't recall how old I was when I first heard the n-word version, or how soon I was scandalized.  But according to Wikipedia's "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" article, the n-word version dates to 1888 or earlier -- the section "Earlier version" cites the Opies; Bolton, The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (1888); and for its popularity "in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century", Rudyard Kipling.  (The last reminds me that I had learned about the U.K. popularity from earlier reading, some decades ago.  Perhaps while reading about the titular history of Agatha Christie's "And then there were none," first published 1939.)
Joel
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On Sat, Apr 25, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
>Subject:      Re: exploration of eeny meenie miney etc.
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Wilson, surely you also know, and I think from about the same period,
>
>Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
>Catch a n... by the toe
>If he hollers let him go
>Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
>Joel
>
>      From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Friday, April 24, 2015 4:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] exploration of eeny meenie miney etc.
>
>...
>
>For many years, the only version of this that I knew was the WWII version,
>
>Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
>Catch a Jap by the toe
>If he hollers O-E-O
>Throw him over in To-kee-o


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