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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
The "patty cake" connection you spoke of rang a bell with this ex-coed-schoolperson. We used to hear the girls chant and clap:
Pat a cake, pat a cake baker's man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Pat it and prick it and......there my memeory fails me, but perhaps it will jog someone else's.
Don't know why it was Baker's man rather than Baker man, but I feel sure it was.
dxb
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Pat it and prick it and......
...mark it with C,
And put in the oven for baby and me
ok, ok, I always liked the girls ;)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Here's the whole version of the steam boat one (from my childhood): Miss Mary had a steamboat,
The steamboat had a bell,
When Mary went to heaven,
The steamboat went to hell-
O operator,
Give me number nine,
And if you disconnect me,
I'll kick you in be-
Hind the yellow curtain,
There was a piece of glass,
When Mary sat upon it,
She cut her little
Ask me no more questions
Tell me no more lies
The boys are in the washroom
Doing up their
Flies are in the city
Bees are in the park,
Boys and girls are having fun
Kissing in the dark, dark, dark! 
What great memories! I have more - maybe for later - gotta work now!
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Pat-ta cake, pat-ta cake,
Baker's man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Roll it and pat it and mark it with a "B"
And put it in the oven for baby and me!
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
Hi girls, can I join in?
Here are the lyrics for the 1894 song by Petrie and Wingate which Sparteye mentioned:
Once there lived side by side, two little maids,
Used to dress just alike, hair down in braids,
Blue gingam pinafores, stockings of red,
Little sun bonnets tied on each pretty head.
When school was over secrets they'd tell,
Whispering arm in arm, down by the well.
One day a quarrel came, hot tears were shed:
"You can't play in our yard,"
But the other said:
Chorus: (All together now!)
I don't want to play in your yard, I don't like you any more,
You'll be sorry when you see me, sliding down our cellar door.
You can't holler down our rain-barrel,
You can't climb our apple tree,
I don't want to play in your yard if you won't be good to me.
Next day two little maids each other miss,
Quarrels are soon made up, sealed with a kiss,
Then hand in hand again, happy they go,
Friends all thro' life to be, they love each other so.
Soon schooldays pass away, sorrows and bliss
But love remembers yet, quarrels and kiss.
In sweet dreams of childhood, we hear the cry:
"You can't play in our yard,"
And the old reply: [Chorus]
And from the collection of Australian children's play rhymes ("Cinderella dressed in yella"), from which I've posted several times before, here are some local variations on some of the rhymes in this thread:
Mary Mack, dressed in black,
Silver buttons down her back.
She likes coffee, I like tea,
She likes sitting on a Chinaman's knee.
Went to a river, couldn't get across,
Paid ten pounds for an old blind horse,
Jumped on his back, gave him a crack,
Goodbye, Mary Mack, she never came back.
My mother said I must never
Go where the gypsies are,
For if I did, she would say
"Naughty girl to disobey,"
One spank, two spank, three spank,
You're out.
My mother said I never should
Play with the sailors down the bay,
If I did, she would say:
"Naughty girl, I'll have you spayed."
And here's one that hasn't been mentioned yet (I think):
Oh, I'm a pretty little Dutch girl,
As pretty as can be, pom pom,
And all the girls around the place
Are crazy over me.
My boyfriend's name is Fatty
And he comes from Cincinnati
With a pimple on his nose
And two auburn toes
And this is how my story goes:
One day when I was walking
I met my boyfriend talking
To a pretty little girl
With a dirty big curl [chocolate]
And this is what he said to her:
"I love you very dearly,
But I love one more sincerely,
So let's go down to the apple tree
And see how happy we can be."
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Dear WW,
I think it was my mother's fault that I was so interested in words. When I was small, it went:
Patty-cake, patty-cake
Baker's man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with C
And put it in the oven for Cristina and me!
(Even at that young age I was being taught, for example, that my name started with "C" - I don't remember learning the alphabet, for example...as far as I'm concerned, I've "always" known it! So even as a baby, I was a wordie already - and the rest, as they say, is history!)
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Anna Banana play the piano;
All she can play is the (pause) Star Spangled Banner.
Anna Banana (clap, clap, jump, land with feet apart).
Two children face each other, feel close together. On beats 1 and 3, they clap ownd hands together; On beat 2 partners clap left hands together; the last line is action only--they clap own hands on first beats, snap with both hands on third beat and jump to a position with feet slightly apart. When their feet as so far apart that they're in splits (or fallen over), the game is over.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Here's the lyrics (if nonsense words can be called that) to a game where everyone stood in a circle, as if you were holding hands but with palms up, with your right hand above the hand of the person on that side, and your left hand below the hand of the person on the other side. Someone would start off by clapping their right hand toward their left hand; since there was someone else's hand there they would receive the clap and the next beat they would clap the hand of the person to their left, and so on. The song goes:
Stella ola ola, clup, clup, clup
Singin' ess chico chico, chico chico chup chup
Ess chico chico valow, valow, valow valow valow valow
One-two-three-four-five!
(I've tried to highlight the strong beats in bold, there were actually two slaps per beat. You guys have no idea how long it took me to work all that out!)
Whoever's hand was supposed to be hit on "Five" had to move it so as not to be hit. If they dodged the hit, the hitter was "out", if they were hit, they were "out". The game would continue to smaller and smaller circles until just one person was left. They were the winner, and then everyone re-joined the circle and started over again!
I always wondered if this song was a bastardization of a song in another language. It sure just seems like very rhythmic gibberish written out like this!
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Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
> I always wondered if this song was a bastardization of a song in another language. It sure just seems like very rhythmic gibberish written out like this!There's a warmup we do in rehearsal for improv... it's based on an African circle chant, and one of my fellow team members *hates* doing that warmup because he finds it insulting to the tradition it represents. I've never seen Roots, so I don't know how best to describe it. We've got it going as a name game/rhyme thing: Shock boo ya, shock, shock, shock boo ya, Roll Call, Shock boo ya, shock, shock, shock boo ya, Roll Call My name is Dagny (Yeah) Eyelids are saggy (Yeah) Got a plastic baggy (Yeah) And I breathe air (Roll Call) Shock boo ya, etc - moving around the circle in the group. Uh oh. Speaking of rehearsal, I'm going to be late...  Better find my shoes.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
I don't remember the the
Shock boo ya, shock, shock, shock boo ya, Roll Call,
Shock boo ya, shock, shock, shock boo ya, Roll Call
at all, but Fiberbabe reminded me of
A my name is Anna
and i come from Alabama
and i eat apples
Bmy name is betty
and i come from Boston
and i eat bananas
and so on.. it was a jump rope song, specifically double dutch, and you jumped in, did your letter, and jumped out.. and with out missing a beat, the next girl jumped in..
it was great in the school yard, where lots of girls waited for a turn to jump in.. usually you had two lines, and you alternated.. entered right, exited left, enterd left, and exited right.. the second round of the alphabet required all new names, places and foods.. Q was hard enough once second go round, no one wanted it, same with X.. but z has more names and you could eat silly things like zinnias.
(i am right in presuming every one here knows what double dutch is? this years winners were a team from Japan.. )
in Fiberbabe's example, the words rhyme, in ours, they followed a letter pattern
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