Anyone remember this one? It was a pattycake (although we didn't use that word). I'm 53 and I could still do most of the hand motions to this. I grew up in West Texas - late '70's/early '80s.


Down, down, baby

Down by the roller coaster

Sweet, sweet, baby

Never gonna let you go

Shimmy, Shimmy Ko Ko Pop

Shimmy, Shimmy Wah, Wah

Shimmy, Shimmy Ko Ko Pop

Shimmy, Shimmy Wah, Wah

We also did Miss Mary Mack, Susie, Tiny Time. I believe we mashed them all together.

With the hand motions of course -

Do you know exactly how to eat an Oreo?
Well to do it
You unscrew it
Very fast
'cause a kid'll eat the middle of an oreo first,
And save the chocolate cookie outside for last!

Blondie and Dagwood went downtown
Blondie bought an evening gown
Dagwood bought a pair of shoes
Cookie bought the Daily News
And this is what it said:
Close your eyes and count to ten
If you miss, you take an end

###

Larlo and Larlee (Name of jumper and her"crush")
Sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love,
Then comes marriage
Then comes Larlee
With a baby carriage.

###
Not a jumping rhyme, but I remember learning this in kindergarten

I'm a little teapot
Short and stout
Here is my handle
Here is my spout
When I get all steamed up
I will shout:
"Tip me over and pour me out!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's an innocuous one. Do kids still use this?

Say, say, oh playmate,
Come out and play with me.
Bring out your dollies three.
Climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door.
And we'll be jolly friends
Forevermore!

So sorry, playmate
I cannot play with you
My dollies have the flu
The mumps and measles, too
I have no rain barrel
I have no cellar door
But we'll be jolly friends forevermore (more, shut the door)

Ours was
My dollies have the flu
They might throw up on you

I did a folklore course in grad school and was shocked at how much sticking power those playground rhymes have, especially given the relatively short “generations” of an elementary school. Folklorists collected children’s rhymes in England in the 50s that I learned from friends in a rural IL school in the 80s and my kids learned in a suburban school 30 years later.

https://www.opiearchive.org/

Anonymous wrote:I remember Miss Susie being so risque for me

Recently, my son loves listening to the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD... there's a rhyme on there that goes "Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider; Girls go to college to get more knowledge." And each and every time I hear it, I can't help but think well if the boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider; then the girls must go to Venus to get more...hm what rhymes with Venus, oh yes, penis. Yes, as an adult woman, that is what runs through my head every time.

We sang it as “girls go to Mars to become movie stars”

Boys go to college to get more knowledge girls go to china to get a bigger virgina

OMG, what a walk down memory lane!!! I haven’t thought about some of these in decades!


Great thread!!

I just realised this just now too. She made a phallic mistake..

There was also a devil song
Oh little devil
Come out and fight with me
And be my enemy
Climb up my devil tree
Drown in my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we'll be enemies forever more

midwesterner 30something who remembers Miss Susie's steamboat rhyme well. Lots of these had very particular hand motions too. Miss Susie had simple ones but there was a version of Yankee Doodle that started 'say say say, yo yo yo, yankee doodle went to town..." that had very elaborate ones that took a while ot learn. Of course now it's a permanent memory I'll probably be able to do in the nursing home.

And lest we forget...

X and Y, sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love,
Then comes marriage,
Then comes baby (or name of a third kid) in the baby carriage!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great thread, OP!

We did Miss Susie and the Place on Mars one all the time when we were kids. Also, Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts and Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School...

We also did a thing with dandlions, where we'd say: "Mama had a baby and its head [here you pop off the seed head] popped off!". Always made me kinda queasy, but I did it anyway. Poor babies!

OMG, I forgot about great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts!

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat
Chopped up piggy's feet
French fried eyeballs swimming in a bowl of pus
And me without my spoon!

Regurgitate! Regurgitate!
Rah, Rah, Rah!
V-O-M-I-T! V-O-M-I-T!
Vomit! Vomit!
Yaaay vomit!
Everything's better with Blue Vomit on it!

We did this verson.

Anonymous wrote:I still don't understand the snake thing....

Trouser snake! They're the most dangerous kind.

Anonymous wrote:I still don't understand the snake thing....

Come up to my room to see my etchings and I will explain it to you.

I remember Miss Susie being so risque for me

Recently, my son loves listening to the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD... there's a rhyme on there that goes "Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider; Girls go to college to get more knowledge." And each and every time I hear it, I can't help but think well if the boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider; then the girls must go to Venus to get more...hm what rhymes with Venus, oh yes, penis. Yes, as an adult woman, that is what runs through my head every time.