Examples Of The United Kingdom Playground Rhyme "Eye Shoe Anna"/"Died In A Fish Shop" (And Similar Titles)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision- April 22, 2022

This pancocojams post documents all of the examples of the playground rhyme "Eye Shoe Anna"/"Died In A Fish Shop" or similar titles that I've found as of this date. 

"Eye Shoe Anna"/"Died In A Fish Shop" or similar titles have  been chanted while jumping (skipping) rope or as part of a partner hand clap game. 

All of the examples of these rhymes are from the United Kingdom.

Addendum #1 of this post showcases  two examples of the "died in a fish shop" verse without the "Eye Shoe Anna" [or similar words] portion.

Addendum #2 of this post showcases an example of a somewhat similar rhyme from African American culture.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who shared examples of these rhymes.
-snip-
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on children's playground rhymes that include reference to death. Click  the tags below for previous and subsequent pancocojams posts on this subject.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
The general mission of this pancocojams blog is "to showcase the music, dances, language practices and customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world,"

Many of the playground rhymes, children's singing games, and children's cheerleader cheers (including foot stomping cheers) that I showcase on this pancocojams blog may be very familiar to African Americans now or may have been very familar to African Americans in the past. 

However, (as is probably largely the case with this particular post), some other examples of children's rhymes and singing games that I feature on this blog may be (or may have been) much less familiar or not at all familiar to African Americans in particular and/or to other Black people throughout the world. As such, some pancocojams posts on these subjects may largely or even completely fall outside of the scope of the above cited mission statement for this blog.

I feature those examples of rhymes, singing games, and cheers on pancocojams because I'm interested in those subjects in general and because I want to use this platform to document, enjoy, analyze,  and archive those subjects.  

I encourage pancocojams readers to join me in collecting, enjoying, sharing, analyzing, and archivinge examples of children's playground rhymes, singing games, and cheerleader cheers so that people now and in future generations will know and better understand those creative composition and performance routines.    

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OVERVIEW OF THE "EYE SHOE ANNA" RHYMES
What I'm calling the "Eye Shoe Anna" family of rhymes include references to a child's mother or father dying at a chip shop. The first verse of these rhymes includes the line "Eye Shoe Anna" or a similar sounding line. 

My guess is that "Eye Shoe Anna" and the other similar words in these examples are folk processed forms of the greeting "Hi" followed by the female first name "Susanna"  or the female double name "Susie Anna". Also, my guess is that  "Eye Shoe Ella" is a folk proceesed form of the greeting "Hi" and the female double first name "Sue Ella".

The first verse notes that all of the boys on the soccer field (given in most of these examples as the "football pitch") greet a girl who they see walking by. The girl is then asked "How's your mother? (or "How's your father?". The girl responds that her parent is all right, but follows that comment with the statement that she (or he)  "died in the chip shop (or fish shop) last night" . The girl is then asked what her parent died of  and she responds "raw fish". The rhyme ends with one of the chanters falling back into her partner's arms or both of the chanters mimicking  "death poses".

The "How's your mother (or father") verse culminating in the end of the rhyme can be found independent of the beginning portion of the "Eye Shoe Anna" verse. This is demonstrated by the two examples in Addendum #1 of this post.

If you are familiar with this rhyme, please share the example that you know with demographic information i.e where you learned it, when you chanted it or heard it chanted, and what performance activity (such as handclap game, skipping/jumping rope ( if any your performed while chanting this rhyme.

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EXAMPLES OF "EYE SHOE-ANNA" AND SIMILARLY TITLED UNITED KINGDOM RHYMES

These examples are given in chronological order based on the example's publishing date.

EXAMPLE #1: EYE SHOE-ANNA

"I am a primary school teacher in the UK and as my final year dissertation of my teaching degree
(18 months ago) I produced a dissertation entitled "Can Children's Playground Culture Affect
Their Classroom Experience". This dissertation covered all aspects of children's playground rhymes (clapping, skipping and dipping).

[…]

Below is a collection of rhymes I have collected during my research.

Clapping Rhyme Eye-Shoe-Anna

I met a little dustbin girl
Called Eye-Shoe-Anna
All the boys in the football team
Said Eye-Shoe-Anna

How is your mother?
Alright
Died in the fish shop last night
What did she die of?
Raw fish
How did she die?
Like this".
-Mark, 1/25/97, https://groups.google.com/g/alt.culture.us.1970s/c/25GUvi8yqqo?pli=1
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Other rhymes are included in that post.

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EXAMPLE #2: HI SHOE ELLA

I know a little Dutch girl
Called
Hi
Shoe
Ella
All the boys at the football club say
Hi
Shoe
Ella
How is your father
All right
Died at the chip shop
Last night
What was he eating
Raw fish
How did it happen
Like this
-DevilBunny; February 13, 2003
 http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/95/t/000442/p/1.html Skipping and Clapping Rhymes.

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EXAMPLE #3: EYE, SHOE, SHARELLA

You may not know these unless you went to school in the UK lol:

[...]

And then there's this one that I only remember part of...

Eye, shoe, sharella
And all the boys on the football pitch went
Eye, shoe, sharella
How is your mother?
Alright!
Died in the fish shop?
Last night!
What was she eating?
Raw fish!
How did she die?
Like this! *falls over*
-TYCP ShaMar 26, 2010, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/jjb/did-you-play-clapping-games-as-a-kid-t607897.html

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EXAMPLE #4: HIGH SHOE HANNAH

I know a girl called High Shoe Hannah
The boys in the football team go H.S.H.
How's your mother
All right, White
Died in the fish shop
Last night,
What did she die of?
Raw fish,
How did she die?
Like this,"
-Bobby, 5/13/2012, http://www.inthe00s.com/archive/inthe80s/smf/1109960765.shtmlThose clapping songs

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EXAMPLE #5: HI SHOE-SHIRVANNA

There was a little gypsy girl called
Hi-Shoe-Shirvanna (no idea what that is lol!)
All the boys on the football team go
Hi-Shoe-Shirvanna
How is your Mother?
All right!
She died in the fish chop
Last night!
What was she eating?
Raw fish!
How did she die?
Liiiiiiiiiiike this!

*mimics dying*

God how morbid! This one had actions to go with it inbetween the claps to!
-Sheryl L(10), 15/06/2012; https://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/being-mum-794/parenting-advice-192/434766-playground-clapping-rhymes-your-childhood-2.html

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EXAMPLE #6: EYE SHOE SHALALALALA 

When I was younger me and my friends used to do:

I met a little Indian girl called eye, shoe, shalalalala
All the boys on the football pitch loved eye, shoe, shalalalala
How's your father (alright)
Died In the chip shop (last night)
What was he eating (raw fish)
How did he die?
Like this!! Then you fall in the others arms
-Tre55dhb, 27/05/2014,  https://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/being-mum-794/parenting-advice-192/434766-playground-clapping-rhymes-your-childhood-3.html

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EXAMPLE #7- HIGH HEEL TRANNER

One day I met an Irish girl
Called High Heel Tranner (stand on tiptoe, touch heel, show off wiggles)
All the boys t the football pitch
Said High Heel Tranner
How’s your mother
All right
Died in a fish shop
Last night.
What did she die of?
Rotten fish (wavy hand motion)
How did she die of
Like this (fall back in partner’s arms)
LETCHLADE, 2010

This rhyme has been around at least since the 1980s, when it began “I’m a little Dutch girl /Called Hi Susie Anna"...
-https://books.google.com, Steve Round, The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of children's traditions , Clapping games [page] 323; 2010

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ADDENDUM #1 -"DIED IN A FISH SHOP" VERSES WITHOUT THE "EYE SHOE ANNA" TYPE VERSE

Example #1: I WENT TO THE CHINESE RESTAURANT

My daughter, who is eight, is still doing clapping rhymes, though the ones she does are different from the ones I did in the 50s and 60s. (These, by the way, are in England). The one she seems to do mostly is:
I went to a Chinese restaurant
To buy me a loaf of bread, bread, bread.
He wrapped it up in a five pound note
And this is what he said, said, said:

My name is
Elvis Presley,
Girls are sexy
Sitting in the back seat
Drinking pepsi.

Where's your father?
Died in a fishtank..Last night
What did he die of?..Raw fish.
How did he die..Like this.

On the "Like this" they pull a strange face as of somebody dead. She says there are various versions of the rhyme. We used to do the first bit, but not the bit beginning with "Elvis Presley"
-MBSLynne, 21 Sept 03, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097  Do kid still do clapping rhymes?

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Example #2: MY NAME IS ELVIS PRESLEY

My name is,
Elvis Presley,
Girls are sexy,
Sitting in the back seat
Drinking Pepsi,
How is your mother?
All right!
Died in a fish shop,
Last night!
What did she die of?
Corned beef!
How did she die?
Like this (mimes death)

It makes no sense...
-username91207, 2008, https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=680317&page=3

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ADDENDUM #2 -AUNT JENNY DIED

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/aunt-jenny-died-childrens-playground.html for 2013 pancocojams post entitled "Aunt Jenny Died" & Other Similar African American Playground Rhymes. That post showcases a video which has an African American rhyme with the title "The Postman Died" in its background. That post also features several other African American examples of rhymes which are similar to portions of "Eye Shoe Anna". Here's an excerpt of one of those rhymes: 

"Aunt Jenny died.
Group:
How did she die?
Soloist:
She died like this. [The soloist makes a funny pose such as raising one of her legs and raising her arm at the same time & freezing in place.]
Group:
She died like this. [The group tries to exactly imitate the soloist's pose]
Soloist:
She died like that. [The soloist strikes a new pose]
Group:
She died like that.
[The group tries to exactly imitate the soloist's pose. The soloist and the group repeat the same sequence with the mention of other relatives until "momma" is mentioned]
Soloist:
My momma livin'.
Group:
Where she livin'.
Soloist & group in unison:
Well she lives in a place called Tennessee.
Jump up Tenna Tennessee [The entire group performs the movements as indicated by the words]"...

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