2011 YouTube Video Of Ten "Old School" Hand Clap Rhymes That Are Performed By Two African American Women

fatcat123455, Uploaded on Dec 24, 2011

old school hand games from way back.. can u remember any more??? i got like 10 of them

1.bo bo seantin tatin 2.miss mary mack
3. i dont want to go to mexico 4.tweet tweet tweet 5.my mother your mother 6. down down baby 7. little sally walker 8.double double this this 9. ini mini sicilini
10. i went to a chineese restaurant 11. ce ce my play mate
-snip-
The last rhyme also contains words to a version of "Fudge Fudge Call The Judge".

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision - November 6, 2023, including new title (previous title: "Ten Playground Rhymes Performed By Two African American Women"

This pancocojams post showcases a video in which two young African American females chant & perform ten hand clap rhymes and one movement rhyme.

The content of this page is presented for historical, folkloric, sociological, and recreational purposes.

Thanks to the young women featured on this video for their interest in sharing those rhyme examples with others via YouTube. Thanks also to those whose comments I've republished in this post.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT & INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THIS POST
Since the mid 1980s, I have been collecting, compiling, and studying the lyrics & performance activities of English language playground rhymes & cheers. Although I'm interested in most of the genres of English language playground rhymes, my main interest is in African American playground rhymes & cheers from the 1960s to date. For that reason, I was very glad that I happened upon this video while "surfing YouTube" (clicking somewhat randomly on one video after another that are found on the youtube.com website.)

I have observed similar routines for each of these rhymes among African American children and teens in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area where I live (observations of rhymes from 1980s to date). And I have observed the same or similar routines for versions of the same rhymes via YouTube videos.

The belief that there are specific, agreed upon hand movements for certain hand clap rhymes is, in my opinion, an important point that should be documented and explored for the folkloric record. Note, for example, how the one woman who introduces the rhyme examples indicates that the "Tweet Tweeet Tweet" rhyme (also known as "Rockin Robin" or "Tweedleelee" or some other similar title) is performed with four people together. This conforms with my direct (in person) observations of this rhyme and also conforms with my observations of this rhyme via videos.

As an aside, it's interesting how many bloggers choose screen names that include numbers, myself included (My screen name on YouTube is azizip171). A study of why people do this would be interesting. A study of how blogger names reveal the blogger's race, ethnicity, and/or nationality would also be interesting...
-snip-
Update: May 17, 2019: Around 2012/2013 YouTube encouraged commenters to discontinue using "made up" screen names and revert to their real first & last names. When commenters (like me) did so, the name that was used for all of our previous comments was changed to our real name.

I believe that many of the old commenter old screen names were creative and also added some demographic information to the comment. This recommended change in YouTube screen names-which wasn't (and isn't) followed by every commenter- sometimes makes it difficult to follow comment exchanges, as the old name still appears in the replies to comments. Following comment exchanges on YouTube discussion threads can also be difficult because commenters can change their screen name at any time.

Another change in custom-if not policy- on YouTube that I've noted in 2019 is that a number of children's videos now disallow comments. Although I can understand why parents and other adults wouldn't want their children to experience possible negative criticism and even offensive comments, I'm sad to see this frequent custom of disallowing comments on children's rhyme videos because those comments often included multiple versions of the same rhymes- many of which aren't published offline or even elsewhere on the internet.
-snip-
Update: November 4, 2019.

It occurred to me to check if YouTube had a new policy about disallowing comments on children's videos. So I checked, and that is indeed the case. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244954/youtube-comments-minor-children-exploitation-monetization-creators
"YouTube is disabling comments on almost all videos featuring children
Only a few select channels will have comment sections enabled

By Julia Alexander Feb 28, 2019, 1:53pm EST

YouTube will no longer allow the majority of channels featuring kids to include comment sections following a controversy over predatory comments being posted on videos of children."...
-snip-
This article indicates that this policy is temporary. However, it appears that it may actually be permanent and even if that feature is reinstated, I wonder if the comments that had previously been published would be available for reading.

As I previously wrote, I understand why this policy was instituted (and even more so with the mention of predatory commenters). However, as a folklorist, it's regrettable. I'm glad that I "saved" selected comments about children's rhymes from some of these YouTube discussion threads and those comments are available on a some pancocojams posts on that subject.

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Since I believe it's important to document demographic information when collecting playground rhymes, I'll add the following information that I've gleaned from observing this video:

It appears to me that these young women are in their early twenties. If so, my guess is that they would have performed those rhymes in late 1990s and/or in the early 2000s.

These young women didn't say that they are African Americans. I guessed that based on the way they pronounced their words, and the narrator's use of African American English slang term "old school" to describe those rhymes - "Old school" is a term that I first heard around the early 1990s, though it might have been used before that. That term is still used today and means means "something from the past", in particular a dance step or a song. Something described as "old school" could be good, bad, or neutral. But my sense is that people usually refer to something as "old school" when they are reminiscing about the music & dance (and in this case, the playground rhymes), they have fond memories of from their childhood or teen years.

I also guessed that these young women are African American based on the playground rhymes that they performed, and based on their appearance, including their clothing, & their hairstyles. However, I'm not sure which region or state in the USA they are from, since most African American accents seem the same to me.

These young women appear to be from the middle economic class [in the USA], judging from their diction, the appearance of the room where this video is being taped, and judging from their access to the Internet to tape this video.

I'd love it if one or both of those women would confirm my guesses and share additional demographic information such as when (which decade/s), where (geographical location), and how they learned those rhymes.

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S VIEWER COMMENT THREAD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0KMFSj-FrQ&t=2s

Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

1. GirlLunarExplorer, 2011
"THANK YOU GIRLS SO MUCH!! I am worried that the next generation of daughters will not know these and I have been posting this video to ALL of my female friends, especially the ones with young daughters. This video was so nostalgic for me that I got chills hearing some of these rhymes again for the first time in two decades. ♥♥"

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2. vuoto più scuro, 2012
"one day this will all B lost"

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3. lovethoseplumbs, 2012
"you did one wrong!"

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4. bubbles bubbles, 2012
"wow nice i remember a lot of these. But u got them but some of its a little wrong but good job"

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5. NubianP6, 2012
"I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" way to do these...it's mostly a regional thing. Several of them are a bit different from what I learned growing up in Florida, but I still recognized most of them..."

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6. Otha Day, 2012
"Agree - there is no right or wrong.....these are part of the folk tradition of music-making, story-telling, game-playing and dancing. As such, they change and evolve.....Growing up in Chicago, I recognize a number of them as variants on what kids used to do in the 60's and 70's. THANKS for sharing them! As a Black music educator and drum circle facilitator it is so good to see young Blacks beginning to make and share videos like this."

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7. Otha Day, 2012
"I love these! Great job!! my only complaint is to have wished you to have changed the ending of "Chinese Restaurant" so that the stereotyped Asian faces part was excluded or better yet, changed to something that was celebratory and not derogatory. Otherwise, so glad that you shared.

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8. fatcat123455, 2012
"well the chinese restasurant was how i sang it as a kid... we didnt kno any better back then to kno if we were singing offensive things... but thx for the comments anywho :)"

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9. faeriefirefly917, 2012
"No way! Stop being so PC! Changing them would ruin them. Don't be so sensitive. This is in no way derogatory."
-snip-
"PC" = political correct

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10. Azizi Powell, 2012
"Actually, there are alot of derogatory words (& in this case accompanying mimicking actions) in children's rhymes. And the words to playground rhymes change all the time accidentally because of mishearing or misremembering or not recognizing a word or phrase & substituting that unfamilar word/phrase for another one. So there's nothing wrong with purposely changing a word/phrase that is offensive & hurtful. And if you were Asian, it's likely you'd fine that version offensive & hurtful."

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11. Amy Carroll, 2013
"There is no wrong, just different versions! Good for you for holding onto these and trying to keep them alive."

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12. IAmLorraineV, 2013
"she didn't do them wrong they change overtime"

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13. Briana Jeanne, 2019
"IAmLorraineV not only over time, they also change depending on where you lived. It’s like that game whisper down the lane. These games were passed on by word of mouth so there are going to be slight variations."

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UPDATE: November 4, 2019
In re-reading this post, I noticed that there were two additional comments that I had written to that video's discussion thread that aren't included in these selected comments. Here are those comments:

14. Azizi Powell, 2012
"Part 2 of my comment
Just like the "eenie meenie" rhyme was changed on purpose, that Chinese Restaurant rhyme has been & can be.
That said, I congratulate the two girls who made the video for documenting the way the rhymes were when they learned them. It's one thing to document the way rhymes were for the "folkloric record" & another thing to encourage children nowadays to perform them in the exact same way you remember."

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15. Azizi Powell, 2012
"Part 3 of my comment

For the folkloric record, I featured this video & selected comments found here (including my own comments) in a post on my cultural blog. Google Pancocojams Various Playground Rhymes Performed By Two African American Women"
-snip-
Following no discernible reason that I can ascertain, comments #2 and #3 were published in that discussion thread right after each other, but my first comment was published very far below those other two.

Also, prior to some date that I can't recall, YouTube comment threads had no reply feature so it isn't noted that I wrote my first comment in reply to at least one comment that was written in response to a comment by Otha Day about problematic references to Chinese in the "I Went To A Chinese Restaurant" rhyme. Both of those comments are given above.

Here's another comment exchange that I'm including in this November 2019 update:

16. Kayla Jones, 2018
"I know this is an old video, but are you aware that a blog is using this video on their page?"

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REPLY
17. Marissa FRANCEEE, 2018
"Where?"

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REPLY
18. fatcat123455, 2019
"Ya where?"
-snip-
This is one of the two women who published this video and who are shown in this video. [In reply to a later comment, fatcat123455 confirmed that the she and the other woman in the video are sisters.]

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REPLY
19. Kayla Jones, 2019
@fatcat123455 you may already be aware of it since its an old blog post and I think they credited you
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/ten-playground-rhymes-performed-by-two.html?m=1
-snip-
I'm certain that I responded to this comment in that discussion thread, but I can't find my response .

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UPDATE: Nov. 6, 2023 - Here are a few additional comments from that discussion thread:

20.@10oughnutdonut56, 2019
"This prove that my hand game life was a lie when I was younger I would play those game a lot but people showed me those game wrong"

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REPLY
21. @kenzojawn, 2019
"10oughnut Donut nah, I think different places just had different variations.  I’m from Philadelphia and some of the motions and rhymes were slightly different for my school."

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22. @layanasmith3390, 2019
"I remember doing the hotdog mad hard when the boys walked by😂😂"

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23. @LILRHONDALEE, 2019
"So friggin cool!  LOL!!  I am 58 yrs old now, but used to luv doing these back in the day in elementary school...living in North Hollywood, Ca.  USA!  TFS!  Xo"

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24. @madelinewyman5158,2019
"I remember these clapping games we used to do in Elementary . out on recess .  but they also had that long Jump rope where you would have to Jump in and start jumping that was hard"

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25.@justinhodges9099, 2021
"I am freakin REMINISCING watching all these videos of old hand games I used to do and I like how everyone has different versions of the same ones too"

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