tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post7398148838584074692..comments2024-03-18T20:11:52.068-04:00Comments on pancocojams: "Thread The Needle" Games In Britain, The United States, The Cameroons, & JamaicaAzizi Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-87664136630217735722017-03-17T11:22:49.831-04:002017-03-17T11:22:49.831-04:00The only singing game that I remember from my chil...The only singing game that I remember from my childhood that is at least almost like a "thread the needle" game is "Go In And Out The Window". Here's a link to a YouTube video of a singing game that has more verses than the game than what I remember (The only verse that I remember are "go in and out the window" and "now bow and face your partner": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXqCyp7GUIw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXqCyp7GUIw</a> <br /><br />Somewhat off topic, but the "go in and out the window" verse is included in a version of the singing game "Water Water Wildflowers" singing game that is documented in England and in the United States.<br /><br />Click <a href="http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/arthur-fields-water-water-wildflower.html" rel="nofollow">http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/arthur-fields-water-water-wildflower.html</a> for Part II of a two part pancocojams series about those singing games. Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-10963306003578648272017-03-17T11:05:28.136-04:002017-03-17T11:05:28.136-04:00Here's a link to that pancocojams post:
http:/...Here's a link to that pancocojams post:<br /><a href="http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/03/some-theories-about-origin-meaning-of.html" rel="nofollow">http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/03/some-theories-about-origin-meaning-of.html</a> Some Theories About The Origin & Meaning Of "The Big Ship Sails On The Alley Alley O" Singing GameAzizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-28540238901157307572017-03-17T09:09:53.671-04:002017-03-17T09:09:53.671-04:00I've decided to publish a post on "The Bi...I've decided to publish a post on "The Big Ship" rhyme instead of adding additional comments/examples of that singing game in this comment section.<br /><br />Having its own thread will help people find material on that rhyme in this blog and also via other internet search engines such as Google search. <br /><br />I hesitated to publish a separate post on "The Big Ship" singing game because this blog focuses on music and dance and other cultural indices from Africa and the Black African Diaspora and I don't want to give the impression that "The Big Ships" singing game is of Black African origin or that variants of that singing game were composed by people of African or Black African descent. [If so, I don't know of any.]<br /><br />But it occurred to me that other children's rhymes and other children's singing games that I've showcased on this blog don't meet those criteria, but were (sometimes; also) played by people of African or Black African Diaspora descent* the same way that non-Black people played them. <br /><br />I'll include some of the content and comments from this thread on that "Big Ships" post. And I'll add a link to that post here.<br /><br />*For what it's worth, I don't remember "The Big Ships" or "The Dusty Bluebells" from my childhood (in the 1950s in New Jersey). I don't think either one of those singing games were/are well known and independently played by children in the USA (without teacher or other adult direction). <br /><br />Of course, I might be wrong about that. <br />Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-68296223361426903352017-03-17T05:24:00.920-04:002017-03-17T05:24:00.920-04:00I just realised the Alley-oh video tune is not qui...I just realised the Alley-oh video tune is not quite the one I remember. Not unusual, there must be thousands of variants.<br /><br />As far as I recall, we sang:<br /><br />The big ship sails down the alley-alley-oh<br />The alley-alley-oh<br />The alley-alley-oh<br />Oh the big ship sails down the alley-alley-oh<br />On the last day of September.<br /><br />My husband he is the captain of the crew<br />The captain of the crew<br />The captain of the crew<br />My husband he is the captain of the crew<br />On the last day of September.<br /><br />I dipped my head in the deep blue sea,<br />The deep blue sea<br />The deep blue sea..<br /><br />And here my memory gets faulty. I think there may have been something about 'never never die'.<br /><br />What puzzled me as a child was, we always used to call marbles 'alleys'. When we played alleys we used the heel of a shoe to make a hole in the soft ground to roll the alleys into: this was the alley-hole, or as we said it, 'the alley'ole'...And I used to think, however could a big ship sail down the alley-hole???slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-73407188713054954822017-03-17T05:05:53.749-04:002017-03-17T05:05:53.749-04:00Yes, that's pretty much what I was thinking. P...Yes, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Perhaps it started as a party game for young adults, with some low-level but exciting physical contact? A bit like Twister. Children would copy it in all innocence.<br /><br />I played 'In and out the Scottish bluebells' as a kid, and 'The big ship sails down the alley alley oh'. We were taught the first by adults at primary school, and it was very sedate. The second we played on our own n the street. I used to be baffled by the words, but to this day I still like the tune :))slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-43719368375877054032017-03-16T19:30:57.892-04:002017-03-16T19:30:57.892-04:00Thanks for sharing those very old British newspape...Thanks for sharing those very old British newspaper reports.<br /><br />The narrator of that Jamaican video said that the thread the needle game was played by adults and children. Maybe the "thread my needle" phrase and the weaving in and out movement became sexualized references that eventually were represented by adults' and children's dance movements and were even later were "reduced" to a children's game without any sexual connotations at all.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-17353863659710337202017-03-16T18:06:57.881-04:002017-03-16T18:06:57.881-04:00Found an earlier ref, and it does sound as if adul...Found an earlier ref, and it does sound as if adults - or young adults anyway - played.<br /><br />This is from 5 June 1786, describing a Whit Sunday Fair at Greenwich in London. It's a rough event, bringing together sailors, prostitutes and "runagate apprentices" who are all "drinking and smoaking - dancing and boxing - singing and shrieking - praying and cursing". <br /><br />But they also play games:"And now the sport begins - Thread my needle - Kiss in the ring - and roll on the hill..." I don't think the last is a game, it's what happens after everyone's had a drink and got excited by playing contact games.<br />"slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-49332656455879421152017-03-16T17:16:28.649-04:002017-03-16T17:16:28.649-04:00I found a ref in The Times (London), 1st August 18...I found a ref in The Times (London), 1st August 1816, to an Irish game. The name though is given as 'Mothers thread my needle'. The game isn't described, but the odd thing is that it seems to have been discussed as a game adults might play? Or I think that's what they mean. The whole article is odd.<br /><br />It's actually a law case - a clergyman was accusing two men of trying to bully him into a duel. They came to his house and called him a poltroon and a coward, and threatened to beat him with a stick. They said he'd insulted a lady, the aunt of one of them.<br /><br />At a dinner party one evening she'd happened to mention this game as a favourite of hers (this is a mature woman, she has a married daughter). The clergyman picked her up on it, and used it to make a kind of blue joke. He asked her which of three male friends is "merriest" at playing it with her, and that one of them - whom he's already suggested looks very like her daughter - was well known to be "a merry old cock". <br /><br />It's pretty clear he's using the name in a sexually suggestive way. I doubt that was it's origin, but the lyrics could be taken suggestively.<br /><br />It sounds to me like he was drunk, anyway.slam2011https://www.blogger.com/profile/03112153426493772446noreply@blogger.com