An Alphabetized Compilation Of A Few United States Children's Playground Rhymes That Were Given With Date & Place Demographical Information

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: March 27, 2021

This pancocojams posts presents an alphabetized compilation of a few examples of United States playground rhymes that I've come across online. These examples include a comment that contains information about both when (the date or decade that the commenter remembers them) and where (the city and/or state) they first performed or learned that example.

In the context of this pancocojams series, "playground rhymes" mean hand clap rhymes, jump rope rhymes, and taunting rhymes.  from the United States that  

Only a small number of children's playground rhymes that I've come across online include both date and location demographic information. Even fewer comments that accompany these rhymes contain racial demographics. That information is included when it was given with those comments.

This compilation doesn't include online examples that I have come across that only have information about when or where the commenter performed or otherwise remembered that rhyme.

This compilation also doesn't include any rhyme examples from my childhood memories, or any examples that I collected through direct observation or through interviews or written surveys, or any examples that I read about in books or in vinyl record notes.  

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/dating-some-examples-of-childrens-hand.html for "Documenting Dates For Some Examples Of Children's Hand Clap Rhymes (From Contributors' Comments That Include A Year Or Decade)" for another pancocojams listing of children's rhymes with dates. Some examples may be included in other pancocojams compilation posts.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/foot-stomping-cheers-demographics-city.html for a pancocojams post entitled "Foot Stomping Cheers Demographics: City & State Locations (1970s through 2010)"

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COMPILATION OF CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND RHYMES 
These examples of children's playground rhymes are alphabetized by the first number or the first letter in their titles. "Titles" are usually the first word or words in that example. 

Additional information about these rhymes may be found on this pancocojams blog or on my cocojam2 blog. The easiest way to find those examples on these blogs is to google the rhymes name + pancocojams [or + cocojams2]. For example, Ah Beep Beep pancocojams.

The numbers given to multiple versions of the same rhyme in this post may not correspond with the numbers given on those pancocojams or cocojams2 blog posts.

This post can be updated with more examples. Please share the examples you know in the comment section below. Remember to add demographics. Thanks!  

A - B

ABC [title]
ABC 
Yo' papa's on L-I-C.
Get offa my feet.
That's how nasty people can be.
Fudge, fudge, fudge.
The doctor called the judge.
Mama's havin' a baby.
Papa's goin' crazy.
If it's a boy,
I give it a toy.
If it's a girl,
I give it a curl.
If it's a twin,
I give it a spin.
Wrap it up in toilet paper,
Put it down the elevator.
First floor, stop, your mother.
Second floor, stop, your father.
Third floor, stop.
Now you better watch out
'cause S-T-O-P spells stop."

On the final word, "Stop," both players would freeze.

[Handclapping game learned in Summit, New Jersey, when I was about 11, from an African American girl friend of mine who lived in Orange, New Jersey. It must have been ~1990 or 1991

My memory of] the clapping game for the “A-B-C” song is clear. The clapping game involved slapping your right hip, and snapping your fingers and clasping hands. I am attaching a sound file of the song as I remember it.

 As I remember it, “L-I-C” was a reference to liquor... I interpreted the song as a rather grim story"
-Anonymous, September 25, 2010, cocojams
-snip-
"cocojams" refers to my now deleted cultural blog. Many of the children's rhymes that were shared on that websites came from children and teens. Click http://cocojams2.blogspot.com/ for compilations of those rhymes and posts about specific rhymes and children's singing games.   

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AH BEEP BEEP (Version #1)

Hello,

I think your website is awesome. I was looking through it and found a chant that is similar to the one we did on our bus ride home from school.

There would always be a couple of the older kids holding a beat by hitting the seats for a kick drum and tapping the windows for a snare effect. Our version was a little different. The lyrics were as follows:

AAAhhh Beep Beep,
Walking down the street,
Ten times a week,
Ugawa, ugawa,
This is Black Power,
So sweet, so sour.
Soul sister number 9, sock it to me one more time,
Uh, ah, I really needed it,
AAAH beep beep,
Walking down the steet,
10 times a week,

…and it would go on and on til there were no more kids on the bus. I remember this one out of all of them because it was my favorite and I like how it went back into itself to make an infinite chorus.
-Lem B., Raleigh, North Carolina, African American children; 7 or 8 years old (1977, 78-recited during long bus rides across town to attend majority white school); cocojams.com, 11/30/2009

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AH BEEP BEEP (Version #2)
Here is the version from Brooklyn, New York in the early 70's...the Brownsville version:

Ahh, Beep Beep!
Walking down the street
Ten times a week
Ungawa!
Black Power!
Destroy!
White Boy!
I said it, I meant it
I'm here to represent it
I'm cool, I'm calm
I'm Soul Sister Number Nine
Sock it to me one more time!
Uh-Uh! Good God!

We had so many rhymes like this. Some were very graphic!
- Guest, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6600&messages=22 "Lyr Req: Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop (Little Anthony)", May 12, 2011
-snip-
Another blogger on that same Mudcat discussion thread posted a very similar example of "Ah Beep Beep" from his memory of "Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, NY at PS 33 in 5th grade in the early 70s". In that version the line was "I'm soul brother number nine".

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C- D

DID YOU EVER SEE A HEARSE GO BY
"I grew up in a Catholic School playground in Brooklyn, in the early 80's. THese were three very popular songs that I wanted to share...enjoy!

[...]

Did you ever see a hearse go by
and you would think your'e the next to die.
they put you in a very small box,
they cover you up with dirt and rocks.
The worms crawl in, the works crawl out,
through your stomach and out your mouth.
So then you begin to say,
that this is the end to a very good day!"
--GUEST,  Tara From Brooklyn, New York, 04 Jan 07, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81350  ,I'm Rubber . You're Glue: Children's Rhymes
- snip-
The other two examples that Tara shared were "Miss Lucy Had A Baby" and "On Top Of Old Smokey".
Those examples are also included in this pancocojams post.

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DOWN BY THE BANKS OF THE HANKY PANKY
1. "I grew up in Pittsburgh (went to Liberty, Frick, and Schenley {High School} c/o 2000)
I know a circle hand clap game with chants called: Down by the bank. It is an elimination game because the children stand in a circle and try to eliminate (or not get eliminated) at the end of the song. The setup is that both of your hands are palms up. Your right hand is under the hand of the person next to you and your left hand is in the palm of the person next to you. When your right hand gets tapped you tap the hand in your left and return your hand to the resting position. To be eliminated if the last note of the song gets on you and you are to hit the hand of the other person and fail to do so before they pull their hand away you must leave. If the person whose hand is to be hit gets hit, they are eliminated. When only two people are left they alternate their wrists until the game is over and then arm wrestle to figure out the winner.

The words start:

Down by the bank with the hanky panky
Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky
Singing eep opp orp opp
-Flojaune G. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), email to Azizi Powell, August 2004

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2. When I was a kid in Kansas City, MO in the early 90's, it was:

"Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky
Where the bullfrogs jumped from bank to bank
(Maybe something else here...)
I said ee-apopa, oh-apopa, i-apopa, POW!"
I can't find anything to confirm it, though. :-\
-Unknown, August 22, 2017, https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/down-by-banks-of-hanky-panky-video.html [comments]
-snip-
Here's a comment about that example from that post's discussion thread from Brandy, Oct. 2, 2018
"My son brought a version of this song home from camp and since it was different from the version I grew up with I came looking it up - this is the version I used. I also grew up in KC (in the 80s), so it was clearly a local variant!

Although I think we usually repeated the "ee-apoppa oh-apoppa" three times before moving on to the "i-apoppa POW" part. But I could be misremembering?"

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3. Our version was pretty simple:

Down by the banks of the hanky-panky
Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky
with an ee-ee, ah-ah, oh-oh, umm.
Down by the riverbank,
Ker-plunk!

and the idea was to smack the hand of the -plunk person as hard as possible.

This was upstate NY, in the suburbs north of Syracuse in the 90's.
-Amanda M. March 9, 2018, https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/down-by-banks-of-hanky-panky-video.html [comments]
-snip-
Syracuse is a city in New York.

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4. I remember doing this very often in elementary school at the local YMCA during summer camp or KidsRKids during the school year. Ours went:

Down by the banks of the Hanky Panky,

Where the Bull Frogs jump from bank to bank-y,
Saying Eeps; Iips; Ops; Umps;
Chilly, Willy, Ding, Dong,
Your breathe smells like King Kong,
Coca-Cola fills you up,
Now you're drinking Seven-Up,
Seven-Up has no caffeine,
Now you're drinking GAS-O-LINE (last three syllables of the line are drawn out and more stressed)

This was in the northern/northwestern suburbs of Houston during the early-/mid-2000s."
-Anonymous, March 23, 2021; https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/down-by-banks-of-hanky-panky-video.html [comments]
-snip-
I've published several pancocojams posts about "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" on this pancocojams blog.

Here are links to two of those posts. 
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/part-i-of-some-examples-of-down-by_22.html for "Part I of Some Examples Of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Rhymes With Geographic Locations (A - J)" and https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/part-ii-of-some-down-by-banks-of-hanky.html Part II of Some "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Rhymes" With Geographic Locations (K - Z)

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DOWN DOWN BABY
Here's a pretty innocuous version. Clapping rhyme, Atlantic City NJ, late 70's:

Down Down Baby, down by the roller coaster
Sweet Sweet Baby, my heart's in love
Ooh, che-chihuahua
Biscuit
I solemnly love her
Biscuit
She is so sweet
Biscuit
Like a cherry treat
Biscuit
Touche Turtle, pull down your girdle
Biscuit
-Ruth Archer, 10 April 07, Down Baby-Race in Kid's Rhymes; https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=100653

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E - F
FUDGE FUDGE CALL THE JUDGE

Growing up in suburban Detroit in the fifties, many of the ones you post are familiar to me.

[Other rhyme examples]

And,
Oh fudge, oh joy
Momma's got a baby boy
Wrap him up in tissue paper
Put him in the 'frigerator.
-Barbara (Detroit ,Michigan) http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81350 "I'm Rubber . You're Glue: Children's Rhymes"; May 26, 2005

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G - H

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I - J

I'M A BAD SOUL SISTER
I'm a bad soul sister from a bad soul town
It takes 48 whites just to knock me down
Don't you pick no apples from my apple tree!
I'm a bad soul sister, don't you mess with me!
-Guest (from Brooklyn, New York in the early 70's...the Brownsville version), cocojams.com, May 12, 2011

**
INK A BINK
How about this one from 70s Minneapolis
Ink a bink
a bottle of ink
the cork fell out
and you stink
not because you're dirty
not because you're clean
just because you kissed a girl
behind a magazine
-geardaddy, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9668007 "Silly Kid Rhymes, 4-18-11

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I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
"Here’s a reader submission that the contributor first heard in 1984 in Placentia, CA. It would probably get kids in a lot more trouble now than it did back then.

I pledge allegiance to the flag,
Michael Jackson is a fag.
Pepsi Cola burnt him up,
now he’s drinking 7-UP.

The rhyme circulated a lot, and appeared in at least three scholarly works on children’s folklore in the mid-late 80s, and there’s a 1994 book about black identity in popular culture* which identifies it as a jump rope rhyme. When I heard it (circa the spring of 1992 in Des Moines), there were two more lines:

7-UP made him pee,
now he’s drinking Pepsi Free.
-quote from http://playgroundjungle.com/2011/01/michael-jackson-and-the-pledge-of-allegiance.html
-snip-
The book that is mentioned in the comments for this example is Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture by Patricia A. Turner (Anchor Books, 1994, Page 94)

According to my online research, instead of being chanted independently, the children's recreational rhyme "I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag" is almost always found in longer versions of the rhyme "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" .

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I WAS STANDING ON THE CORNER NOT DOING ANY HARM 
There was a thread on this last year I learned it as follows about 1936 in grade school

I was standing on the corner not doing any harm
When along came a copper and he took me by the arm.
He took me round the corner and rang a little bell.
Along came the ding-dong a-driving like hell.

Seven o'clock in the morning, I looked upon the wall.
The roaches and the bedbugs were having a game of ball.
The score was seven to nothing and the roaches were ahead,
When the bedbugs hit a hone run that knocked me out of bed.

Eight o'clock in the morning, the jailer comes around, And brings you bread and butter that weighs half a pound.
The coffee's like tobacco juice. The bread is hard and stale;
And that's the way they treat the bums at the Whaley Avenue jail.

I learned this about 1936 in New Haven, CT which accounts for the line Whaley Avenue jail. This is where the town jail still is. There appeared to be several variations of this song all over the country...

GUEST,Allan S., http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=312, "Roaches and Bedbugs?", June 1, 2000

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K - L

LAST NIGHT AND THE NIGHT BEFORE 
Here is a song we used to do on the playground in Birmingham, AL back in the 80s:

Last night and the night before I met my boyfriend at the candy store
He brought me ice cream he brought me cake
he brought me home with a stomachache
mama mama i feel sick
call the doctor quick quick quick
doctor doctor will i die
close you eyes and count to five
i said a one, a two, a three, a four, a five
I'm alive

[Optional part] we would do sometimes (a little risque for little girls):

see that house on top of that hill
that's where me and my baby gon' live
we gon' cook some cornbread
cook some meat
come on baby let's go to bed and do the boom boom boom. -Joi, cocojams, 3/23/2008

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M - N

MISS LUCY HAD A BABY
"I grew up in a Catholic School playground in Brooklyn, in the early 80's. THese were three very popular songs that I wanted to share...enjoy!

Miss Lucy had a baby,
she named him Tiny Tim.
She put him in the bath tub,
to see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water,
he ate up all the soap,
he tried to eat the bath tub,
but it wouldn't go down his throat.
Miss Lucy called the Dr,
Miss Lucy called the nurse
Miss Lucy called the lady with the alligator purse.
Measles said the dr.
Mumps said the nurse,
_______ said the lady with the alligator purse.
Out walked the dr,
out walked the nurse
out walked the lady with the alligator purse.
-GUEST,  Tara From Brooklyn, New York, 04 Jan 07, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81350  ,I'm Rubber . You're Glue: Children's Rhymes
- snip-
The other two examples that Tara shared were "On Top Of Old Smokey" and "Did You Ever See A Hearse Go By". Those examples are also included in this pancocojams post.

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA
"Hi there. I'm from Mississippi and was in elementary school in the late 80's through early 90's. the version of "Miss Sue" I remember was not listed here. I thought I'd help you out. Last time I heard it, I think it had varied ever so slightly from when I was in school, but this is how I remember it:

Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama

Sittin' in a rocker
eatin' betty crocker
watchin' that clock go tick-tock,tick-tock-banana-nana
tick-tock, tick-tock banana-nana

ABCDEFG
-wash those stains right out'a my knees
MUSHKA, MUSHKA, MUSHKA FREEZE
(as fast as you can) 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10!

I never got the last part...sometimes the rule was you had to stay still while you counted, and sometimes it was to count the fastest. The most distinct difference "I remember is that there were always three claps after "Miss Sue." I hope that was helpful.
-Allison {Mississippi; remembered from the late 1980s, early 1990s},cocojams.com, 2/28/2007

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O - P

OOOH AAH! WANNA PIECE OF PIE (Version #1)
OK, I gotta join in because I came looking for just this discussion, and am surprised to not see the version I learned. I grew up in the Anacostia district of SE Washington, D.C. I was born in 1961 and vaguely recall that I learned this one from my older brother maybe between 1967 and 1970. I always assumed he got it from school, but we were pretty much the only whites on our street and the black girls next door spent a lot of time doing some skilled rope jumping with songs and chants, so maybe it came from them. The rhythm seems much too slow for skipping rope, though, unless they jumped at twice the meter or something. But it had a truly "boy sound" to it, always with a deep, growling voice like an alcoholic bum or something...can't imagine girls doing this one!

OOOH! AHH!
Wanna piece o' pie!
Pie too sweet,
Wanna piece o' meat!
Meat too tough,
Wanna ride a bus!
Bus too full,
Wanna ride a bull!
Bull too black,
Want ma' money back!
Money too green,
Go get Mr. Clean!

(with emphasis...)

Mr. CLEEAAN SEZ...(pause)

(start over at top and repeat, endlessly)

I had to do it for my 7-year-old son tonight, as I always do, when I got out the Mr. Clean to clean up a mess of his. Who knows, maybe I picked up some kind of marketing version of it!
- Guest, Robert, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26926&messages=37, "Lyr Req: Oh my, I want a piece of pie", April 15, 2009

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OOH AHH I WANNA PIECE OF PA (Version #2)
This is how I remember it from 1969 in Western NYS- and after seeing the other posts I have to laugh because we always said Pa instead of pie and it never made any sense to me-but most of these didn't anyway.....And I also can see a reference to the times-related to the bus being too black....

Ooh Ahh, Wanna piece of Pa
Pa too sweet
Wanna piece of meat
Meat too tough
Wanna ride a bus
Bus too black
Want my money back
Money too green
Make me wanna scream
"Your father's got a head like a submarine!"
- Guest, cknick (Western New York state), http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26926&messages=37, "Lyr Req: Oh my, I want a piece of pie", September 21, 2010
-snip-
This contributor wrote that "... I also can see a reference to the times-related to the bus being too black.".

That contributor may have been referring to the fact that the late 1960s was a time when slogans such as "Black power!" and "Say It Loud/I'm Black and I'm Proud" were being heard. Also, some African Americans began to wear their hair in afros, change their names to traditional African or Arabic names, and wear adapted African styles such as dashikis or geles (African headwraps). Perhaps the contributor's comment about "the times-related to the bus being too black" referred to those outward expressions of Black pride and self-confidence.

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OH SAY CAN YOU SEE
We not only sang 'em after school, but also after Sunday School:

Oh say can you see
Any bed bugs on me
If you do
Take a few
"cause I got them from you...

(For the person who wanted demographics, early to mid 1950's Washington, DC area)
-Severn; http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2795#12230 "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!", 3/27/2005

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ON TOP OF OLD SMOKEY
I grew up in a Catholic School playground in Brooklyn, in the early 80's. THese were three very popular songs that I wanted to share...enjoy!

[...]

On top of old smokey, all covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table, and onto the floor,
and then my poor meatball, rolled right
out the door.
It rolled through the garden,
and under a bush,
then my poor meatball,
was nothin' but mush!"
-GUEST,  Tara From Brooklyn, New York, 04 Jan 07, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81350  ,I'm Rubber . You're Glue: Children's Rhymes

- snip-
The other two examples that Tara shared were "Miss Lucy Had A Baby" and "Did You Ever See A Hearse Go By". Those examples are also included in this pancocojams post.

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Q- R

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S - T

SAY SAY MY PLAYMATE
Our version was a little different of the playmate song. I was born in 1966 in Kansa City, Missouri. Our version was:

Say say oh playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rain barrel
Into my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
For ever more more, shut the door.
-GUEST,Brenna, 21 Jul 08,  Lyr Req: Playground songs, http://awe.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18352&page=2

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SEE THE BASKET
Insult: For a basketball game:
See the basket
See the ball
Come on dummy
Hit the wall

This was something my mother said in the 1950s in Reading, Pennsylania.
-Beth Z. cocojams.com, 10/6/2006
-snip-
This is actually a children's basketball cheer, but I'll keep it here anyway.

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U- V
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W - X

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Y- Z 

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