Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents the complete reprint (three comments as of August 10, 2026) of the discussion thread that I started in May 2005 on the online Mudcat Folk Music Forum about the English language children's chasing game "Old Mother Gray". That game is also called "Old Mother Grey" and similar titles.
This post also presents an AI Overview of the "Old Mother Grey" game that is the result of my query on August 10, 2026.
In addition, this pancocojams post presents the complete reprint of a kodalycollection.org page about the game "Old Mother Gray".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown creators of this game. Thanks to the collectors of this game and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/03/connections-between-british-caribbean.html for the closely related 2017 pancocojams post entitled "Examples Of "What Time Is It Mr. Wolf?", "I'm Going Downtown To Smoke My Pipe", & "Children Children" (Where Are You Going?) Games"
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/12/chickama-chickama-craney-crow-singing.html for the closely related 2023 pancocojams post entitled "Chickama,
Chickama Craney Crow" singing & chasing games (information, lyrics,
& play instructions)".
Also, click _____ for the closely related 2026 pancocojams entitled ": "Old Witch Game" -Excerpt From William Wells Newell's 1884 Collection Of American Children's Games & Songs
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REPRINT OF MUDCAT DISCUSSION THREAD ABOUT "OLD MOTHER GREY" CHASING GAME (May 9, 2005 -August 9, 2026)
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81014&messages=3
Subject: ADD: Game song: Old Mother Grey
From: Azizi
Date: 09 May 05 - 10:17 AM
"In my research on continuity and change in children's rhymes I learned about this very old British children's game song:
OLD MOTHER GREY
Old Mother Grey, may we go out to play?
Mother Gray: 'No, it's raining'.
Children: "No, it isn't, the sun is shining
Mother Grey: "All right, you may go out to play'.
[The children rush off, and play around, perhaps moving out
of sight.]
Old Mother Grey calls: "Children, it's dinner
time!"
Children: 'Coming mother.'
Mother: 'Where have you been?'
Children: 'We've been to London to see the Queen.'
Mother: 'What did she give you?'
Children: 'A loaf of bread as big our head, a piece if
cheese as big as our knees, a lump of jelly as big as our belly, and a teeny
weeny six pence."
Mother: "Where's my share?
Children: 'Up in the air.'
Mother; 'How shall I get it?'
Children; 'Stand on a chair.
Mother; 'And if I fall?'
Children all laugh and shout out: "We don't care."
[Old Mother Grey runs after them, and whoever she catches
becomes the next 'Mother'.]
Source: Source: Iona and Peter Opie: "Children's Games in
Street and Playground"; [Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969; pp. 307-308
Here's a variant from the Caribbean:
WE DON'T CARE
Children, children
Yes, Mama.
Where yo' been to?
Granmama.
What she give yo'?
Two apples.
Where yo' put them?
On the shelf.
How will yo' get them?
Stand on a chair.
[As the "children" answer "Mama" they creep closer and closer to her until finally "Mama" turns and chases them"].
Source: Grace Hallworth: "Down By The River: Afro-Caribbean Rhymes, Games and Songs for Children" [New York Scholastic Inc, 1996]
I also have heard this variant from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania {1998}:
CHILDREN CHILDREN
Children, Children
Yes, Teacher.
Where have you been?
To Grandmom's.
What did she give you?
Bread and cheese.
Where's my share?
Up in the air.
How can I reach it?
Stand on the chair.
Suppose I fall?
We don't care.
Ha, Ha, Ha. Class is dismissed.
London Bridge is falling down, {Sing the "London Bridge"
tune}alling down falling down,
London Bridge is falling down.
Back to detention. {Teacher's voice}
-snip-
And two days ago I found a variant of this rhyme called "Club Fist" in a book that Hallowfox sent me {Thanks, Hallowfox}!!
CLUB FOOT
Call:
What you got there?
Response Club
fist
Call
Where's my share?
Response Rat's
got it.
Call
Where's the rat?
Response Cat's
got it.
Call
Where's the cat?
Response Rope
hung him.
Call
Where's the rope?
Response Fire
burnt it.
Call
Where's the fire?
Response Water
quenched it.
Call
Where's the water
Response Ox
drunk it.
Call
Where's the ox?
Response Dead
and buried by the old church steeple,
And
whoever cracks a smile will get a hard pinch
[anyone who laughs gets pinched]
Source: "Did You Feed My Cow?", Margaret Taylor
Burroughs
-snip-
I'm wondering if any of these game songs are familiar to anyone or if you know of any game songs that are similar to them.
Thanks."
-snip-
August 10, 2026- Read my recollections in the comment section of this pancocojams post about the "We Don't Care" example of this game that I heard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1998.
Subject: RE: Game song: Old Mother Grey
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 09:44 AM
Subject: RE: Game song: Old Mother Grey
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 11:11 AM
https://kodalycollection.org/song.cfm?id=1237&title=Old%20Mother%20Gray"
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AI Overview
" "Old Mother Grey" (sometimes spelled Gray) is an
old traditional British children's playground game and dialogue song where
children ask to go out to play, return from "London to see the
Queen," share a rhyming exchange about dinner time, and end with a tag
game chase.
How the Game is Played
The Request: Children ask, "Old Mother Grey, may we go
out to play?"
The Weather Debate: Mother Grey says it is raining; the
children claim the sun is shining until she lets them go.
Dinner Time: Mother Grey calls out that it is dinner time.
The Dialogue: Children recite a cumulative rhyming dialogue
("We've been to London to see the Queen..." giving absurd sizes of
bread, cheese, and jelly).
The Chase: When Mother Grey asks for her share ("Up in
the air... stand on a chair"), the children yell "We don't
care!" and run. Mother Grey chases them, and whoever she catches becomes
the next "Mother".
****
REPRINT FROM KODALY COLLECTION ORG. SONG "OLD MOTHER GRAY"
https://kodalycollection.org/song.cfm?id=1237&title=Old%20Mother%20Gray
"OLD MOTHER GRAY
Source -Library of Congress AFS 3635 B4
Collected by Herbert Halpert"
[Lyrics from sheet music]
"Old Mother Gray can we go out to play?
I won’t go near the riverside to chase the geese away.
-Transcribed by Gail Needleman
Suggested game directions:
Formation: Children stand in a line and face a child chosen to be “Old Mother
Gray”
Action: Children sing the song two or three times, and the mother responds with
spoken answers (no, not yet, maybe, not today). On the
next repetition, the mother responds “yes!” The children “run” towards the mother’s side as she tags (or catches) one of the children. The
child caught becomes the new “Old Mother Gray” who now stands on the other side and the game repeats.”…
-end of quote-
This page continues with a section called “Rhyme Analysis” and a section called "Rhythm Set”.
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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visiting commentsare welcome.
I learned the children's chasing game "We Don't Care" in 1998 from a young African American female teacher at Fort Pitt Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At that time, my daughter taught at that school.
ReplyDeleteFort Pitt has been closed for years. But, at that time, almost all of the students in that school were African American.
I had received permission from that school's principal and permission from my daughter to sometimes visit her after-school sessions and engage with the girls and boys who attended those sessions as a means of collecting examples of rhymes and singing games that they knew. Those after-school sessions consisted of children being tutored, and doing their homework and possibly getting help as needed from a teacher. In addition, those children in those after-school sessions read books or did artwork. So my asking them to share examples of rhymes and singing games (by demonstrating to the group how to "do" those rhyme and singing games) fit the general atmosphere of those sessions.
That particular day, the teacher whose classroom was next door to my daughter's classroom happened to come into that room and announced that she had a rhyme that she bet that I and the rest of the people in that room hadn't heard before. (She was right.)
After she enthusiastically shared that "We Don't Care" rhyme, I asked her where she had learned it. She said that it was from the Caribbean. (Unfortunately, I didn't ask her at that time or later on where in the Caribbean or when and how she had learned it. But at that time I did ask her what happened in the rhyme after the teacher said "Class is dismissed". She said that the children made faces at the teacher and the teacher chased them. She also said that the chasing part is the main reason for the words the teacher and the children said before that.
I assume that the first child who was caught became the teacher and the game began from the beginning, but I don't know if she told me this or not.
I mentioned the name Hallowfox In my 2005 Mudcat comment that is given in this post. "Hallowfox" was the name of a member of Mudcat folk music forum. Thanks, again for gifting me with that book on folk rhymes, Hallowfox!.
ReplyDelete