Playground games & Kiddy Rhymes

franc 91 · 03-02-2012 11:36am

That would be a general name for fingers and is also used for toes - often there were (and still are) counting rhymes and songs where each finger had a specific name. That's what I'm asking about.

Jellybaby1 · 03-02-2012 12:51pm

In the middle of a game, if you had to run home for tea, or had a 'call of nature', we would hold up our hand with crossed-fingers and just say 'tax'. That meant we could re-join the game on our return. Don't know why we crossed our fingers, if we had a call of nature though!

:D:D 'Tax' was probably our word for 'pax'.

Spread · 03-02-2012 2:57pm

My mother, as a little girl, played this song while counting out:

One, Two, Three
Mother caught a bee
Bee died, mother cried
And out goes SHE!

Grandkids out here sing a similiar one:

Intray, Mintray, Peppery corn,
Blueberry seed and Briar thorn!
Wire, Fire, Limber Lock
Five Geese in a Flock,
Two flew East, and two flew West,
And one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Thats it ........ am off for my post brekkie walk

franc 91 · 03-02-2012 3:08pm

Here's another that's similar to that -
Inky pinky ponky
The farmer bought a donkey
The donkey died
The farmer cried
Inky pinky ponky.

looksee · 03-02-2012 5:26pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

In the middle of a game, if you had to run home for tea, or had a 'call of nature', we would hold up our hand with crossed-fingers and just say 'tax'. That meant we could re-join the game on our return. Don't know why we crossed our fingers, if we had a call of nature though! :D:D 'Tax' was probably our word for 'pax'.

Jellybaby, see my post number 20!

Jellybaby1 · 03-02-2012 5:51pm

looksee wrote: »

Jellybaby, see my post number 20!

Snap!

We were obviously the dopey kids and just thought it wuz 'tax'!

franc 91 · 21-02-2012 5:39pm

In the book 'All in! All in!' it's definitely 'Pax' and raising the crossed index and middle finger of one hand. One version of 'Tip and Tig' is when those who are being chased call out 'I've no iron', so those who are standing on or touching iron - such as a lamp-post are 'safe'
In several of the ball games that you find in this book there are quite a few references to shops of various kinds
1, 2, 3, O' Leary
I spy my Auntie Mary
Coming out of Merville Dairy
Eating chocolate ice-cream (Merville Dairies near Finglas)

Ma, let's go
To see the Rodeo.
The Rodeo is not far
It's just beside the Penny Bazaar
The Penny Bazaar is not far,
Ma, let's go! (Mark's Penny Bazaar in Henry Street was destroyed during the Easter Rising)

Rubecula · 02-10-2012 1:12pm

I was on my way home from the dentist today ( everyone say Awww ) and I was thinking to take my mind off things, about rhymes we used to say as Kiddies.

The one that stuck in my head was:

One Two Three Four Five
Once I caught a fish alive.
Six Seven Eight Nine Ten,
Then I let it go again.
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on the right.

Yep sort of silly, but do any of you still remember the rhymes you had as a kiddywinky? I am assuming of course the girls will remember these better from skipping games and such. I am sure there are a few for the lads though.

OldGoat · 02-10-2012 1:40pm

There was a young girl called Joan
Something, something...NSFW.

namenotavailablE · 02-10-2012 1:54pm

Can't omit good ole King Cole from this list or dump Mister Humpty Dumpty either. Little Miss Muffet gets a mention too from me....as do (does?) the Owl and the Pussycat...

Rubecula · 02-10-2012 1:54pm

I knew you wouldn't let the side down OG :pac:

I won't mention the ones like that I remember. I could get into serious trouble LOL

EZ24GET · 02-10-2012 4:20pm

I can only remember parts of this...Alice has legs ike spaghetti and a neck like a giraffey affey affey affe
Alice climbed into the bathtub, pulled out theplug and then- Oh! My Goodness ! Oh! My Soul! There goes Alice down the hole..." Seemed like there were hand gestures that went along with it, can't quite remember them.

Jellybaby1 · 03-10-2012 12:37am

One, two, three, O'Leary
Four, five, six, O'Leary
Seven, eight, nine, O'Leary
Ten O'Leary, I love you.

Or something like that anyway!

One potato, two potato, three potato four,
Five potato, six potato, seven potato more,
something, something, something, etc., and so on and so forth!

I think teachers must have thunk these up to make sure we learned how to count! :rolleyes:

looksee · 03-10-2012 11:48am

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

One potato, two potato, three potato four,
Five potato, six potato, seven potato more,
something, something, something, etc., and so on and so forth!

I think teachers must have thunk these up to make sure we learned how to count! :rolleyes:

That was the whole of the rhyme, everyone held up two fists and the leader counted them off by thumping a fist to each number and back to their own fist for 'potato'. They had to remember to do their own fists too. Any time a fist got 'more' it was out, till both fists were gone and that person was out. The 'winner' got to be 'it' or whatever. With a big crowd the playtime break could be over by the time you had it sorted!

Beruthiel · 03-10-2012 11:52am

Eneey, meeny, miney, moe,
Catch a (can't say that word anymore and can't believe I said it back then, but in my defense, knew no different!)
If he screeches let him go,
Eneey, meeny, miney, moe.

BBDBB · 03-10-2012 11:58am

The was a young man from from Nantucket

Well really! Im surprised at you!
You should be ashamed of yourself
at your age, you should know better
looking in here for filth and depravity

namenotavailablE · 03-10-2012 12:00pm

The was a young man from from Nantucket
Spoiler:

And there was me thinking that the next line was:

Who tripped and fell into a bucket

Mollywolly · 03-10-2012 12:21pm

It's raining, it's pouring,
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed and bumped his head
And couldn't get up in the morning!

I found a site that helped to jog my memory......linky here

It brought back some lovely memories of playing in the park with friends when I was much younger....[sigh]

Lexicographer · 03-10-2012 12:38pm

I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life,
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on the knife.

franc 91 · 03-10-2012 1:04pm

I was going to say that that one sounded like something from the pen of Spike Milligan, but in fact it is by Ogden Nash.
So here's -

I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and the sky.
I left my shoes and socks there,
I wonder if they're dry. (though when we used to say it, it was vest and pants - oh so much more risqué!).

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if you're looking for rhymes that you have trouble remembering, there are these two books that you might be able to find second-hand somewhere, that would interest you and they are - Moon Penny compiled by Bill Meek (Ossian Publications 1985 - ISBN 0 946005 30 3) and All in! All in! compiled by Eilis Brady (Folklore Studies - University College Dublin 1984 - ISBN 0 901120 85 5) and Appletree Press in Belfast have re-edited Boys and Girls Come Out to Play - Irish Singing Games compiled by Maurice Leyden - first published in 1993 (2008 edition - ISBN 978 1 84758 096 2)
By the way - eenie meany miney mo is thought to be Cornish in origin, but there is also an Irish version in Dreoilin, Dreoilin, Ri na nEan.

Jellybaby1 · 03-10-2012 1:39pm

When I taught my tots 'eeny meeny miney mo' I changed it to 'catch a little boy/girl by the toe'. It worked very well and one day they heard someone say the original and they were surprised that that person had got it so 'wrong'!

"All in, all in, who has the ball?' Yep, remember playing that one. This all sounds very familiar, we must have been chatting about this in another thread?

looksee · 03-10-2012 1:44pm

Yes we were, I will hunt for it and combine them

Update - have combined the two, I think this is the one we were thinking of.

policarp · 08-10-2012 2:55am

Ra ra ree
Kick him on the knee
Ra ra rollocks
Kick him on the other knee.

As kids, we all thought this was kind of risque and daring. It was sung out in a kind of a chant.

EZ24GET · 08-10-2012 6:33pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

When I taught my tots 'eeny meeny miney mo' I changed it to 'catch a little boy/girl by the toe'. It worked very well and one day they heard someone say the original and they were surprised that that person had got it so 'wrong'!

"All in, all in, who has the ball?' Yep, remember playing that one. This all sounds very familiar, we must have been chatting about this in another thread?

We were taught to say tiger. Didn't really know there was a different version until we were introduced to it by kids at school. We were horrified but also couldn't really understand why it would have ever been used. Used one potato, two potato for choosing too.

JuliusCaesar · 08-10-2012 7:13pm

Skipping song:

vote vote vote for deValera
In comes (next girl) at the door-eye-oh

the next girl jumped in, the girl skipping jumped out...can't remember the rest of it.

Dev was ancient and seemed to have been the President forever.

There were a lot of clapping games, and complicated throwing tennis balls against a wall games, which involved rhymes too - and French skipping which was made with LOTS of elastic bands. And hopscotch, which we also called skipping, was played with a shoe polish tin filled with earth to weigh it down.

EZ24GET · 08-10-2012 10:15pm

We jumped to
"Teddy bear Teddy bear
Turn around
Teddy bear Teddy bear
touch the ground
Teddy bear Teddy bear
go upstairs
Teddy bear Teddy bear
Say your prayers"
as we pantomimed the events. At the last you closed your eyes, folded your hands under your tilted head. then skipped out.

Alice1 · 09-10-2012 11:02pm

Oh yes, we used to play "Giant Steps" too - there were a lot us and it was great fun.
We also used to play something called "Working Men" Needed minimum of three childer. Two of the childer would plan a job (eg, painting, knitting, eating etc) and had to mime it to the other one. The other one had to guess - charades of a sort I suppose... though if the person couldn't guess he/ she could suddenly shout "the cow is lowing" and chase the "working men" away.

We used to count someone "out" by chanting

"See Sally Saucer, sitting in the water,
Rise up Sally, wash your tears away.
Turn to the east turn the west.
Turn the one that you love best". (The one who was loved best, was out)

Alice1 · 09-10-2012 11:05pm

EZ24GET wrote: »

I can only remember parts of this...Alice has legs ike spaghetti and a neck like a giraffey affey affey affe
Alice climbed into the bathtub, pulled out theplug and then- Oh! My Goodness ! Oh! My Soul! There goes Alice down the hole..." Seemed like there were hand gestures that went along with it, can't quite remember them.

*Ali glares @ EZ, and does the thinned lips look*

EZ24GET · 09-10-2012 11:47pm

Alice1 wrote: »

*Ali glares @ EZ, and does the thinned lips look*

oops

sorry about that

Rubecula · 10-10-2012 7:32am

Why am I laughing at this thread now :pac:

Remember "The big ship sailed on the Alley Alley Oh"?

and "One potato Two Potato. three potato four" for choosing something or somebody.

We used to play a game called "Eelallio" (Or however it was spelled) Now I can't remember what it was all about, a bit like hide and seek I think. And if you had to go in for your dinner the way to tell your mates was to call them all back by "ALL IN ALL IN, THE CAPTAIN's CALLING" at the top of your lungs.

Playground games & Kiddy Rhymes

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