This is Part II of the pancocojams series on the Old Time Music tune and song "Granny Does Your Dog Bite?". That tune/song is also known as "Chicken In The Bread Tray".
This post presents two sound files and one video of "Granny Will Your Dog Bite".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in these YouTube examples. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
**** ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLES
Example #2: Granny Does Your Dog Bite - Laney Lou & The Bird Dogs | Live at the Filling Station 2.17.2017
Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs
We hope you enjoy Granny Does Your Dog Bite, live at the
Filling Station on a gorgeous night in Bozeman, MT. Cheers!
****
Example #3: Tommy Jarrell - Granny Will Your Dog Bite
Banjerholler, Sept. 25, 2012
**** Example #4 : Granny will your dog bite? - a traditional fiddle tune
Dany Rosevear, July 31, 2018
[...]
Granny will your dog bite, cow kick, cat scratch? Granny will your hen peck, sow root the corn patch? Granny will your duck quack, old grey goose hiss? Granny will your dog bite? "No, child, no!"
Open up the gate and walk on through, Spy an old dog but he won’t bite you. Granny will your dog bite? "No, child, no!" Hog bit’er pecker off a long time ago.
Chicken in the bread pan, bread pan, bread pan, Chicken in the bread pan, scratching out dough. Rooster in the barnyard, barnyard, barnyard, Rooster in the barnyard, a-strutting while he crows.
**** This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series on "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?"
This post presents comments about the children's recreational song "Head And Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3. Lyrics and video examples of this song are also included in this oist.
The content of this post is provided for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured on these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
DESCRIPTION
"Head And Shoulder Baby 1 2 3" (also known as "Head And Shoulders Baby") is an African American adaptation of the children's movement rhyme "Head And Shoulders Knees And Toes".*
"Head And Shoulder Baby 1 2 3" appears to be rather widely known in the United States and appears to be most often performed as a partner hand clap game with pantomined actions. However, "Head And Shoulders Baby" is also performed by individuals who clap their own hands and pantomine its words.
*My sense that this song is of African American composition is its percussive nature, its textual pattern, and the fact that African Americans are the documented sources of early examples of this children's recreational song.
****
LYRICS
There are two different forms of "Head And Shoulder Baby 1 2 3" and different versions of those two forms. I believe that the oldest form of this song (which I refer to here as "Form #1) is limited to verses that feature two different parts of the body.
HEAD AND SHOULDERS BABY 1 2 3, (form #1)
Head and shoulders baby 1, 2, 3
Head and shoulders baby 1, 2, 3
Head and shoulders
Head and shoulders
Head and shoulders baby 1, 2, 3
Hips and thighs baby 1, 2, 3
Hips and thighs baby 1, 2, 3
Hips and thighs
Hips and thighs
Hips and thighs baby 1, 2, 3
Knees and ankles baby 1, 2, 3
Knees and ankles baby 1, 2, 3
Knees and ankles
Knees and ankles
Knees and ankles baby 1, 2, 3
****
Here's a video example of that form:
Head and Shoulders Baby
S Joffe, Uploaded on Feb 23, 2008
Susannah's 2nd Grade performance
-snip-
This version ends with the verse "That's all, baby 1, 2, 3".
A variant of "Form #1" includes other movements which are pantomined (for example, "tie your shoe", "do a dance", "turn around").
The second form of "Head And Shoulder Baby 1 2 3" refers to body parts and also includes the verse that begins with the line "I ain't been to 'Frisco" or similar beginning words. That is a floating verse that is found in a number of old (pre 1940s) African American songs.
HEAD AND SHOULDERS BABY 1 2 3, (form #2)
Head and shoulders baby 1, 2, 3 [2x]
Head and shoulders [3x]
Head and shoulders baby 1 2 3
Knees and ankles [Follow the above pattern.]
Well, I ain't' been to 'Frisco.
I ain't been to school.
I ain't been to college.
But I ain't no fool.
To the front.
To the back.
To the side side side.
To the front.
To the back.
To the side side side.
Milk the cow baby 1, 2, 3 [Follow the above pattern.]
Round the world, baby 1 2 3 [Follow the above pattern.]
Well, I ain't been to 'Frisco [etc]
-snip-
Here's that video:
Head and Shoulders Baby
****
TEMPO
The tempo for "Head And Shoulders Baby 1 2 3", as it was "originally" sung by African American girls and boys is much faster than how it is sung in almost all of the videos of this song that are found online (including almost all of the videos found in this post.) The fast pace of this song is what makes it fun to do.
Documentation of the fast tempo of "Head And Shoulders Baby" is found in the album notes for that song in the 1971 album Little Johnny Brown featuring American storyteller/singer Ella Jenkins and girls and boys from uptown Chicago. Referring to that song, Ella Jenkins writes "It can be challenging to keep up with the fast tempo of the recording". http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW45026.pdf [hereafter given as "Ella Jenkins: Little Johnny Brown".]
Example #1 below shows "Head And Shoulders Baby" being sung at a faster tempo.
****
TIMELINE
1950s
I don't know when the movement song "Head And Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3" was first composed. However,
I remember performing "Head And Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3" as a partner hand clap game in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s. I played this game with my sisters and our friends before learning "Head And Shoulders Knees And Toes" in school. My recollection is that we played "Head And Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3" as a pantomine game and not as a partner hand clap game. The object of the "Head And Shoulders Baby" game was to keep up with the words to the song (do the right motions while singing the song). If you couldn't keep up with the fast pace of the song, you were out.
I only remember the first verse and third first given above (Form #1). I think that sometimes we played this game as an individual don't re
I remember thinking that "Head And Shoulders" was a song for babies while "Head And Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3" was for "older kids".
****
1960s & 1970s
Thanks to YouTube, I've located this 1966 recording of The Fender Benders's "Head 'n' Shoulders - 1, 2, 3": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vdtgW1WebU. The Fender Benders are a White American Rock & Roll band.
In the above section on the tempo of "Heads And Shoulders Baby", I referred to Ella Jenkins' 1971 album which included that song. In addition to commenting on the song's tempo, Jenkins wrote that she first saw the song "done by a group of girls and boys at the Elliot Donnelly Youth Center" (Chicago, Illinois). The verses for that recording were "head and shoulders", knees and ankles" and "ankles and toes". Of course, that could have been just a simplification of the way the song was sung by the children in the youth center. Ella Jenkins then wrote that "Head And Shoulders Baby" was a "traditional chant". The term "traditional" may mean "a folk song that has no known composer". However, the use of "traditional" doesn't convey any information about when this song was first sung. The fact that Ella Jenkins, who is known for her repertoire of old African American children's songs, didn't know "Head And Shoulders Baby" before she saw it done by that group of Chicago children suggests that that song may not have been widely known when Ella Jenkins first started performing in the 1960s.
An example of "Head And Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3" is included in the 2003 book Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America by Onwuchekwa Jemie. https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1592130291. The often bawdy (dirty) examples that are given in this book were "Collected primarily in metropolitan New York and Philadelphia during the classic era of black street poetry (i.e., during the late 1960s and early 1970s). It's very likely that at least some of the verses for "Head And Shoulders Baby" that are found in this book have "nasty" connotations. In addition to the standard verses ("head and shoulders"; "knees and ankles", ankles and hips"), that book's example contains these verses which are also pantomined: "close the door", "zip the zipper", "around the world", "tie your shoe", "milk the cow", and "around the world."
****
1980s
A video of "head And Shoulders" from a mid 1980s Canadian children's television show is given below as Example #3.
****
ADDITIONAL VIDEOS OF "HEAD AND SHOULDERS BABY 1, 2, 3"
These videos are presented in chronological order based on their publishing date on YouTube with the oldest example given first.
Example #1: Head and shoulders baby 1 2 3
kiara yasmilet, Uploaded on Dec 17, 2011
lolz
-snip-
lolz= lols [laugh out loud] with a "z" added in place of an "s" [meaning laughing a lot]
This video is an example of Form #1 of "Head And Shoulders Baby 1. 2. 3".
Here's the words to that example which is sung uptempo: [This is my transcription of that video. Additions and corrections are welcome.]
Head and shoulder baby 1, 2, 3 [2x]
Head and shoulder [3x]
Head and shoulder baby 1, 2, 3
Tummy thighs baby 1, 2, 3 [same as above pattern]
Knees and ankles baby 1, 2, 3 [same as above pattern]
Scoop the ice cream [same as above pattern]
Around the world
All together now [Do all the actions in the order they were sung.]
****
Example #2: Sedgwick music program -Head & shoulder baby 1 2 3
.
Asmita Kulkarni, Published on May 22, 2013
-snip-
This video is an example of Form #2 of "Head And Shoulders Baby 1. 2. 3".
****
Example #3: Sharon, Lois & Bram - Head and Shoulders Baby
Sharon Lois Bram, Published on Nov 21, 2013
**I do not own the rights to this content**
Season 3, Episode 2
-snip-
This is a clip of "The Elephant Show", a Canadian children's television show that featured the children's song recording artists Sharon, Lois, and Bram. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant_Show "The Elephant Show (from the second season onward, Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show) is a Canadian children's television show. It originally ran on CBC from 1984 until 1989.".
Women and young girls practice “Miss Mary Mack” at Peabody
Elementary School in Washington, D.C., 1974.
Video: Kate Rinzler Papers, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
****
Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision - July 7, 2026
This pancocojams post provides information and comments about the meaning of the "Mary Mack" ("Miss Mary Mack") rhymes/songs.
This post also includes YouTube videos and word only examples of "Miss Mary Mack".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All content remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the children featured in the video and thanks to the publisher of that video that is included in this post.
Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black black black
With silver buttons buttons buttons
All down her back back back.
She asked her mother mother mother
For fifty* cents cents cents
To see the elephant elephant elephant
Jump over the fence fence fence
He jumped so high high high
He touched the sky sky sky
And he never came back back back
Till the fourth of July ly ly
-from multiple sources, including my childhood memories of Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1950s
*I remember saying "fifteen cents" when I was a child, but it appears that most children now say "fifty cents". That is the way it is chanted in my adopted home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (as of 2014), and it appears from online examples that most children say fifty cents now and not fifteen cents. This may be because the word "fifty" fits the rhyming pattern better than "fifteen".
****
VIDEO OF "MISS MARY MACK" SONG
Miss. Mary Mack all dressed in black....
evealikenimel·Uploaded on Jun 16, 2011
Apresentacao no Nic na escola....2010-2011
**** EARLY DATES FOR "MISS MARY MACK" ("MARY MACK")
"There are several songs that occasionally have the title
"Mary Mack." The most common one is a children's song, "Mary
Mack, Mack, Mack, Dressed in black, black, black...." It is very often
used as a clapping game. The earliest version I know is from Halliwell's The
Book of Nursery Rhymes Complete, in 1846. It's available on Google Books; look
for "Parson Darby wore a black gown" and "Darby and Joan were
dress'd in black."
It's clearly traditional, but based on the distribution of
nineteenth century versions, I would suspect it is English, not Scottish.
There is also a fairly well-known music hall song with this
title. That is the one listed in the Digital Tradition under the title
"Mary Mack."
**** Subject: RE: Origins: Mary Mac From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Mar 24
"Bob Waltz (above) wrote the Traditional Ballad Index entry
for Mary Mack. It might be helpful if I posted the entire thing:
Mary Mack (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, All dressed in
black, black, black...." The singer speaks of love, and engages in a
series of unprofitable transactions. Much of the song consists of floating
verses, e.g. "I went to the river... And I couldn't get across."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting commerce | black
buttons clapping
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MA,MW,NW,SE,SW,So)
Australia Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations
[…]
NOTES [350 words]: Not to be confused with the music hall
song of the same title, which involves what sounds to be a shotgun wedding. -
RBW
Raudnitzky: "Once upon a time, now long ago, there
lived in the city which we know as Gotham, two little sisters who were wont to
amuse themselves with ... ['Mary Mack']."
One spiritual includes the verse "Look over there what
I see, Mary and Mac, Dressed in black. Where shall I be when the first trumpet
sound? Where shall it be when it sound so loud? Goin' ter wake up de dead"
(source: Anna Kranz Odum, "Some Negro Folk-Songs from Tennessee" in
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVII, No. 105 (Jul 1914 (available
online by JSTOR)), #3 p. 257 "Goin' ter Wake Up de Dead" (1 text)).
Apparently not knowing about the rhyme, Odum reasonably takes Mac to be a
corruption of Martha, Mary of Bethany's sister (John 11:1-12:11); or perhaps he
has it right and the rhyme is corrupted.
On the other hand, Archer Taylor in English Riddles from
Oral Tradition (Berkley, 1951) apparently lists "Mary Mack all dressed in
black, Silver buttons down her back" as riddle #656 with the solution
"coffin" (source: Robert A Georges and Alan Dundes, "Toward a
Structural Definition of the Riddle" in The Journal of American Folklore,
Vol. LXXVI, No. 300 (Apr 1963 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 114).
Perhaps this should be named .".. Dressed in
Black." Among the subjects are "Darby and Joan" -- having
nothing to do with the "Father Grumble" take off -- or "Darby's
son" and "Betsy Blue," both in black, with silver buttons down
the back (Northall). - BS
There seems to be fairly standard clapping-game version of
this now:
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack,
All dressed in black, black black,
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons,
Down her back, back, back...."
But the many versions show that there was more variety in
the past. Was there a media program that standardized it? I don't know.
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes agrees with Taylor's interpretation
that this is a riddle for "coffin." I strongly doubt most players
today would guess that -- or even guess that this is a riddle. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5"
**** SOURCES OF AND THEORIES ABOUT THE MEANING OF "MARY MACK" RHYME
b. Source: Robert A Georges and Alan Dundes, "Toward a Structural Definition of the Riddle" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LXXVI, No. 300 (Apr 1963 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 114) as noted in http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/CNFM158B.html ; The Ballad Index Copyright 2014 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle [hereafter given as "The Ballad Index: Mary Mack"]
"Mary Mack all dressed in black/Silver buttons all down her back” -"Archer Taylor in English Riddles from Oral Tradition (Berkley, 1951); riddle #656 with the solution "coffin"
3. The "Mary Mack" rhyme is a rhyming exercise and doesn't really mean anything.
4. Similar to #3, "Miss Mary Mack" is composed of lines from various sources (such as a riddle and lines from other stand alone rhymes and/or songs.)
-snip-
Many playground rhymes are composed by stringing together sometimes unrelated stand alone rhymes or songs, or lines from those compositions. "Miss Mary Mack" isn't unique in that regard.
Read the 1888 example of "Miss Mary Mack" given below for one example of how this rhyme is obviously composed by combining lines from different sources.
Also, "Going To see the elephant jump the fence" may mean "going to the circus to see the trained elephants do tricks". However, elephants don't jump fences in the circus, and jump so high that they don't return down to the ground until the 4th of July. So there's that...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_the_elephant indicates that "The phrase "seeing the elephant" is an Americanism (or American phrase) of the mid to late 19th century. Seen throughout the United States in the Mexican-American War, the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, the American Civil War, the 1849 Gold Rush, and the Westward Expansion Trails (Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Trail), the mythical elephant was an extremely popular way of expressing an overwhelming emotion."
**** LINES FROM "MARY MACK" RECREATIONAL RHYME" FOUND IN AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUALS Source: "The Ballad Index: Mary Mack"
"One spiritual includes the verse "Look over there what I see, Mary and Mac, Dressed in black. Where shall I be when the first trumpet sound? Where shall it be when it sound so loud? Goin' ter wake up de dead" (source: Anna Kranz Odum, "Some Negro Folk-Songs from Tennessee" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVII, No. 105 (Jul 1914 (available online by JSTOR)), #3 p. 257 "Goin' ter Wake Up de Dead" (1 text)). Apparently not knowing about the rhyme, Odum reasonably takes Mac to be a corruption of Martha, Mary of Bethany's sister (John 11:1-12:11); or perhaps he has it right and the rhyme is corrupted."
-snip- I added italics to highlight this information.
In my opinion, those lyrics quoted by The Ballad Index serve as an example of a singer of religious songs including lines from a secular source, probably to extemporaneously "keep the song going". While the borrowing is usually from the religious to the secular, I'm sure that there are examples of the use of lyrics in the other direction, although I can't think of any off the top of my head.
**** THE "MARY MACK" RECREATIONAL RHYME ISN'T THE SAME AS THE MUSIC HALL SONG WITH THE SAME TITLE
"The Ballad Index: Mary Mack" also indicates that the "Mary Mack" rhyme should "Not to be confused with the music hall song of the same title, which involves what sounds to be a shotgun wedding".
-snip-
That music hall song is the Scottish folk song "Mari Mac". Click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2645 "Lyric request: Mary Mack or Mari-Mac" for information about & lyric examples of that song.
..."Miss Mary Mack" is entry number 145 [in the Opies' book].
They say that this song "is clapped today by girls all over the country", meaning
Britain. So that addresses the first question.
They say it is "a combination of an old English rhyme and an oldish
American one."
This one was documented in Boston in 1865:
Mary Mack, dressed in black,
Silver buttons all down her back,
Walking on the railroad track.
In the 1870s, Shropshire children were observed dancing to:
Betsy Blue came all in black,
Silver buttons down her back,
Every button cost a crown,
Every lady turn around,
Alligoshi, alligoshee,
Turn the bridle over my knee.
The rhyme about the elephant who jumps the fence turns up independently
in the US, starting around 1915."
****
A 1888 VERSION OF "MISS MARY MACK"
From: The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children
By Henry Carrington Bolton
New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co. 1888
Pg. 117:
Miss Mary Mack, dressed in black,
Silver buttons on her back.
I love coffee, I love tea,
I love the boys, and the boys love me.
I'll tell ma when she comes home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone.
N. S. B., West Chester, Pa. 1888
-quoted by Donna Richoux, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.usage.english/u483flGZvk8/aS6QBNxm2w8J April 7, 2011
-snip-
Note: Commenter Cheryl wrote on April 8, 2011 that part of that version of "Miss Mary Mack" includes lines from the folk song "Mari-Mac".
-snip-
Revised: January 21, 2019:
Since "I Love Coffee, I Love Tea" is an independent rhyme, that 1888 example of "Miss Mary Mack" can be said to be made up by combining a riddle : "Miss Mary Mack, dressed in black/ Silver buttons on her back"= a coffin + lines from a (then) jump rope rhyme [now usually performed as a partner hand clap rhyme: "I love coffee, I love tea/ I love the boys, and the boys love me"+ lines from a Scottish folk song: "I'll tell ma when she comes home/ The boys won't leave the girls alone."
****
A SIMILAR RHYME PUBLISHED IN 1922
An early example of "Mary Mack" is the song/rhyme entitled "The Elephant" that is included in African American professor Thomas W. Talley's now classic 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise & Otherwise, even though that example doesn't include the name "Mark Mack", or whether its a girl or boy speaking the lines, or whether the person speaking wore black with or without silver buttons down her or his back:
My mammy gimme fifteen cents
Fer to see the elephan' jump de fence.
He jump so high, I didn't see why,
If she gimme a dollar he mought not cry.
So I axed my mammay to gimme a dollar,
Fer to sgo an' hear de elephan' holler,
He holler so loud, he skerred de crowd.
Nex' he jump so high, he reech de sky;
An' he won't git back 'fore de fo'th o' July.
I have a vague remembrance of a recording of Ella Jenkins prefacing this version of "Miss Mary Mack" with a statement that this is the way that people sing this song in Ohio.
****
"ASK MY MOTHER FOR SIXPENCE" RHYMES/SONGS
The British & Australian rhymes or songs that include the "ask my mother for sixpence to see the giraffe" lines are similar to those lines in "Mary Mack" rhymes.
WARNING: The rhymes that include the "ask my mother for sixpence" lines can be considered to be bawdy (what British people call "rude" and what children I know refer to as "nasty"). Here's an excerpt of profanity avoidance rhymes that share some similarities with the subject matter found in "Mary Mack":* https://www.facebook.com/groups/memorylaneaust/posts/9911258088897092/
[Numbers added for referencing purposes only.] 1. Memory Lane - Growing up in Australia ·
Jeannine Morrison, April 28, 2025
"Memories of Traditional Rhymes about Big Giraffes
Titles are generated by AI from Meta
Oh another. thing, my Aunty rarely swore but one of her
favourite sayings was "Ask your mother for sixpence to see the grand
parade" there is more but I can't remember it.
Can anybody else remember it?"
Meta AI
What people are saying
Variations of "ask your mother for sixpence to see the
big giraffe" rhyme shared, with differing lyrics and memories.
2. Beryl Griffin, 2025
"We used to say, Ask your Mother for sixpence to see the big
giraffe, with pimples on his eyebrows and pimples on his a..e"
** 3. Katrine Graham. 2025 [in response to a commenter who wrote "Yes, that's the one!"]
Leanne Phillips ask your mother for six pence to see the big
giraffe
Buttons on his waistcoat, and pimples on his ask your
mother, etc
Possibly state by state variations.
** 4.
Carmel Girvan, 2025 "Ask your mother for 6pence to see the big giraffe, with
pimples on his whiskers and pimples on his aaaask your mother for 6 pence ...."
** 5. Bronwen Davies, 2025 "When I was a kid,we used to say " Ask your mother for
sixpence to see the big giraffe 🦒 with a pimple on his
tongue and a pimple on his...ask your mother for sixpence...." then you
just keep going until you get fed up saying it." -snip- There are other similar comments on that Facebook page.
-snip- *These examples were added on July 7, 2026; The original pancocojams post and other updates/revisions didn't have any excerpt.
****
Here's one example of an "Ask your mother for sixpence to see the giraffe" rhyme/song:**
Well I ask my mother for a sixpence to see the new giraffe
With wrinkles in he body and dimples in he…
Ask my mother for a sixpence to see the new giraffe
With wrinkles in he body and dimples in he…
Ask me no questions, you will hear no lies,
Put down molasses and it will catch no flies...
-snip- I think that the "Mary Mack" rhymes came before these "ask my mother for sixpence" rhymes. I also think the "ask my mother for sixpence" rhymes originated in the United Kingdom while the "Mary Mack" rhymes originated in the United States. -snip- **July 7, 2026. The original pancocojams post and other updates/revisions didn't have any citation for that example.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITORIAL COMMENTS
In her book The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-dutch to Hip-hop, African American author Kyra Danielle Gaunt wrote “The game song “Miss Mary Mack” is the most common hand clapping game in the English- speaking world, and the most familiar in black repertoire.”[Google Book, page 63]
-snip-
Kyra Gaunt gave no citations for those statements.
Here are the collection dates that Kyra Gaunt lists for "(Miss) Mary Mack" in the United States & in New Zealand:
Source: The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-dutch to Hip-hop [Google Book, p. 63]
"Roger Abrahams (1969) found variations of this game song in Kansas (1940), Missouri (1947), North Carolina (1948), Arkansas (1949), Pennsylvania (1959), Texas (1963), Indiana (1966), and New Zealand (1959). He linked the performance to region, but did not include any information about the ethnicity of the performers. According to Abrahams, the first lines of “Mary Mack” are based on a riddle for “coffin” that has origins in English oral practices (Taylor 1951, quoted 234, quoted in Abrahams 1969, 120.)”
-snip- Added July 7, 2026- I remember chanting "Miss Mary Mack" in the mid 1950s (Atlantic City, New Jersey. I vaguely recall doing individual jump rope while chanting the commonly cited verse that ends with the elephant jumping the fence and "he never came back to the 4th of July ly ly". I remember sometime in the mid 1950s (?) being surprised when I saw two girls doing hand clap routines to that rhyme and/or other rhymes. That was new to me. -end of July 7, 2026 addition.
****
My personal experiences facilitating game song groups and special game song performances in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area from 1997-2005 (mostly with Black children) support the view that "Miss Mary Mack" was a widely known rhyme. That said, it seemed to me that "Miss Mary Mack" was much more widely known among African American children (5-12 years) than among non-African American children of those same ages. Indeed, it seemed to me that "Miss Mary Mack" was the most widely known (but not the most popular) playground rhyme among African American children. (I think the most popular rhyme among that popular in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area during those years may have been "Mama Mamma Can't You See" or "Twee lee lee", also known as "Rockin Robin"). However, by at least 2003, it appeared that fewer African American children knew the words to "Miss Mary Mack" than had previously known that rhyme.
**
It's likely the title "Miss Mary Mack" is more commonly found among African Americans than non-African Americans. One reason for this may be that many African American children (particularly those children in the South or raised by adults with recent Southern roots) were (are) taught to always address women using the title "Miss" before their last name or their first name, if you were given permission to use that first name. Hence, that rhyme is usually known as "Miss Mary Mack" and not "Mary Mack".That custom may also be the reason for the "Miss" in the rhymes "Miss Sue From Alabama" and "Miss Lucy Had A Steamboat".
However, I believe the voice that is speaking the lines in "Miss Mary Mack" is a girl and not a woman. (After all, she asks her mother for money to see the elephants jump the fence.) That said, White girls were also referred to by the asjective "little" (as in "little Miss") or the referent "Missy".
****
[latest revision- July 7, 2026]
Here's an excerpt that about the use of "Miss" in "Miss Mary Mack" and the other rhymes as noted above:
from https://newrepublic.com/article/119432/history-female-titles-mistress-miss-mrs-or-ms
..."Until the 19th century, most women did not have any prefix before their name. Mrs and, later, Miss were both restricted to those of higher social standing. Women on the bottom rungs of the social scale were addressed simply by their names. Thus, in a large household the housekeeper might be Mrs Green, while the scullery maid was simply Molly, and the woman who came in to do the laundry was Tom Black’s wife or Betty Black."...
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's comment: "Aunt" and "Uncle" were also sometimes used as titles for older Black women in the United States i.e Aunt Jemima and "Uncle Remus". However, those titles were also used for older White women in the United States.
-snip- Here are "Mary Mack" verses in Rufus Thomas's 1963 hit R&B song "Walking The Dog": "Mary Mack, dressed in black
Silver buttons all down her back
High hose, tipsy toes
She broke the needle and she can't sew
[...]
I asked my mama for 15 cents
See an elephant jump the fence
He jumped so high, he touched the skies
Didn't come back 'til the 4th of July"
-snip-
These are the "Mary Mack" verses from that song, and not that song's complete lyrics.
-snip- Walking the dog" is the name of a R&B dance.
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RELATED LINKS
Click http://www.playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/mary-mack.html * for examples of & comments about "Mary Mack", including examples that end with this old floating verse that is found in a number of 19th century American and Caribbean folk rhymes/songs:
"July can't walk, walk, walk
July can't talk, talk, talk
July can't eat, eat, eat
With a knife and fork, fork, fork" -snip- This link is no longer active.
This pancocojams post presents text examples of children's rhymes that include the line "My mommy (or "mother") sent me to the store". Many of these rhymes include the lines "What ya gonna feed him/neck bones (or words that are a similar to "neck bones"). A sub-set of those children's rhyme examples contain the line "Shave and a haircut/Two bits" rather than the line "My mommy sent me to the store".
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
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GENERAL COMMENT
These examples demonstrate how children combine two or more independent (stand alone) verses or rhymes. The verse that is common with these examples (with the exception of Examples #1 & #4) are made up of two or more "what" or "who" questions with short, rhyming responses. The line "What ya gonna feed him (or "it") is found in each of these examples, except the exceptions already mentioned. The first "What" question is the first line of the second [stand alone?] rhyme. The first rhyme is either "My mommy sent me to the store" or "shave and a haircut". Other rhyming verses may also be added to these rhymes.
It also occurs to me that these rhymes with "what" or "who" questions & short, rhyming responses remind me of the song/chant "Hambone" ("Hambone Hambone where you been"?), and the "Puddin Tane" rhyme ("What's your name/Puddin Tane"). And another "What did you feed them?" song from African American culture -along with this posts' featured rhymes- is "Did You Feed My Cow".
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DEMOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Very little demographical information is available for the rhyme examples that are featured on this page. All of these examples were given as remembrances of rhymes that the contributors chanted or the contributors remembered being chanted during their childhood (by other children or by their parents or from their grandmother who remembered it from her own childhood).
Both female and male contributors posted examples of these rhymes. No racial demographics were given for any of these contributors. However, read my comments after Example #3 in which I share why I deduced that the contributors for that example and for Example #2 were African American.
The earliest date for the examples in this collection is 1922 (from Dad's memory). Other dates that were given were "the [19]60s (from grandmother), and "my whole childhood" (age given 27 years in 2010 = 1970s) [Example #7].
PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY
Example #1 in this post is from a collection of jump rope rhymes. Another contributor [Example #4] indicated referred to her [?] rhyme as a "clapping game". No performance information was given for the other examples.
RHYME SOURCES
I believe that this children's rhyme was inspired by the Fats Waller song "My Mommie Sent Me To The Store". I also believe that that Fats Waller song in turn was inspired by the Parkers Brothers card game "My Mother Sent Me To The Grocery Store.
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FEATURED EXAMPLES
These examples are posted in chronological order based on their publishing date online or their collection date with the earliest published examples given first. When neither of those dates are available, that example will be posted with the date that it was retrieved from that website.
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Example #2:
My momma sent me to the store
She told me not to stay out long
I fell in love with a little black boy
That stole my heart away, hey hey hey.
Who's the daddy?
Tyrone
What you gonna feed him?
Neckbones
****
Example #3: [quote] Originally posted by CJUS
"My momma sent me to the store
She told me not to stay out long
I fell in love with a little black boy
That stole my heart away, hey hey hey.
Who's the daddy?
Tyrone
What you gonna feed him?
Neckbones
LOL, I don't remember the rest of it. That was a long time a go" -end of quote-
...I fell in love with the grocery boy who took my heart away, way way.
Who's the daddy?
Tyrone
Whatcha' gone feed it?
babyfood
Whatcha' gonna feed it with?
a silverspoon.
Kisha, 4-01-2003 http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/archive/index.php/t-31403.html "Old School Chants"
-snip-
From the vernacular language used in some of the rhyme examples & some of the comments, and from the inclusion of certain rhymes which are almost always associated with African Americans, I deduced that all the participants in this Greekchat.com "old school chants" discussion thread were African Americans. This deduction was reinforced by some of the screen names and signage of other participants in this discussion thread which identified those contributors as members of historically Black Greek lettered sororities (and the fact that sororities in the United States are almost completely racially segregated.)
I believe that both of these Greekchat.com examples are missing a line or lines at the end. Read the subsequent examples to find possible ending lines and/or the format used to come up with possible ending lines.
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Examples #4:
Clapping games
(These lines probably don’t even really go together except in my head.)
My boyfriend’s name is Tony.
He comes from the land of Baloney.
With 23 toes and a pickle for a nose.
This is how my story goes.
One night while I was walking
I saw my boyfriend talking
to a cute little girl with a strawberry curl
and this is what he said, said, said.
I L-O-V-E love you.
I K-I-S-S kiss you.
I K-I-S-S kiss you on your
F-A-C-E face face face.
My mother sent me to the store.
She told me not to stay.
But I fell in love with the grocery boy
and stayed ’til Christmas day, day, day.
My mother wanted peaches;
my mother wanted pears;
my boyfriend wanted 50 cents
and kissed me on the stair, stairs, stairs.
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Example #5:
Shave and a haircut, two bits.
Who’s gonna pay for it? Tom Nix.
Whatcha gonna feed him on? Cold Grits.
Don’t know where that came from, but that’s how my grandmom sang it in the 60s
-Elizabeth on September 17, 2010, http://dan.hersam.com/2004/09/21/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/ "Amidst a tangled web: shave and a haircut, two bits" Hereafter given as Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix
"Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix;[1] January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. Between 1909 and 1935, Mix appeared in 291 films,[2] all but nine of which were silent movies. He was Hollywood's first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy actors who followed."
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Examples #6:
All the variations are amazing! This is my memory:
Shave and a haircut, six bits,
Who’s the barber, Tom X (maybe Mix).
What’re your gonna feed him? Steak bones?
Who’s gonna eat ‘em? Spike Jones.
-Polly on September 25, 2010, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jones
"Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in performing satirical arrangements of popular songs. Ballads and classical works receiving the Jones treatment would be punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells, and outlandish vocals. Through the 1940s and early 1950s, the band recorded under the title Spike Jones and his City Slickers and toured the United States and Canada under the title The Musical Depreciation Revue."
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Example #7:
I’m 27, and my whole childhood we sang
“shave and a haircut,
2 bits; who ya gonna marry? thomas
whatcha gonna feed him? ham bones
who’s gonna eat ‘em? spike jones
then we’d instantly go into the “my momma told me” song.
-Janice on September 27, 2010, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
-snip-
"My momma told me" is probably the song:
My momma told me
If I would goody
She gonna buy me
A rubber dolly
But someone told her
I kissed a soldier
She didn't buy me
A rubber dolly.
(from my memory of that song in New Jersey, 1950s, jump rope or hand clap rhyme)
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Example #8:
My grandmother sings:
Shave and a haircut–two bits
Who got married–Tom mix
Who was he doctor–buck jones
What did they feed him–dog bones
Awesome!!! Thought it was always something she made up for us but it’s cool I found others!!
-Dusty on March 16, 2011, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Jones
"Buck Jones (December 12, 1891[1] – November 30, 1942) was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, known for his work starring in many popular western movies. In his early film appearances, he was billed as Charles Jones."
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Examples #9:
The way my grandmother and mother taught us was:
Shave and a haircut, two bits!
Who ya gonna marry? Thomas!
What ya gonna feed him? Neck Bones!
Who’s gonna eat them? Spike Jones!
This was followed up by the lady with the bald headed baby song
-Alicia on June 29, 2012, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
-snip-
This may be the rhyme (song) that includes a line about "the lady with the bald headed baby"
From http://girlgriots.tumblr.com/ "The Handgame Society"
Take a peach take a plum
take a pocket full of gum
No no don’t take it
Take it up
Take it down
Take it all the way around
Popcorn maybe chicken and gravy
Here comes the lady with the bald-headed baby
She can wiggle she can wobble
She can do the splits
Betcha 5 dollars she can’t do this:
Said spin all the way arrrrouunnd
Jump all the way arroounnd
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Examples #10:
Ok kids, here my Dad’s version, who was born in 1922:
Shave and a haircut, 2 bits.
Who’d got married? Tom Mix.
Who’d he marry? Shea Ray.
How’s the baby? OK.
Who’s the doctor? Doc Jones.
What’ya feed the baby? Big bones.
-Chris on September 30, 2012, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
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Example #11:
My gramma taught me:
Shave and a hair cut – two bits
Who’s getting married – Thomas
Who is he marrying – Pearl White
How is the baby – All right
What do they feed her – Ham bones
I’m pretty sure there’s another line to rhyme with bones.
-Atalaya on May 16, 2013, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_White
"Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American film actress. White began her career on the stage at the age of six. She later moved on to silent film appearing in a number of popular serials.
Dubbed the "Queen of the serials", White was noted for doing the majority of her own stunts in several film serials, most notably in The Perils of Pauline."
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Example #12:
Shave and a Haircut, 2 Bits
Who is the Barber? Tom Mix
Whatcha gonna Feed him? Neck Bones
Who’s Gonna Eat ‘Em? Buck Jones
Run to the River, Jump In.
Sink to the Bottom,
The End.
-Jim Lilly July 8, 2013, Hersam: Shave And A Haircut
Revised November 24, 2018; latest revision March 31, 2023]
Although I'm African American, because I was a goody two shoes church girl and also a book worm, I wasn't very street smart. One sign that I wasn't street smart was that I never learned how to play the African American insult exchange game called "the dozens". Somehow or another-probably from books tv, or movies-I did know about the dozens and it's standard "Yo[ur] Mama" beginning phrase and come back. But I don't recall ever see anyone play that insult game. And it wasn't until I was in my 40s that I first learned about the pre-dozens rhyme "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers"-'drawers' in this context meaning 'panties (female underwear).
I thought that the first time I read an example of "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" was a discussion thread of "Childhood Games & Rhymes" from the 1980s on an internet forum for members of various Black Greek lettered sororites. One of those women with the tag name Optimistic1 added this example to the mix:
"Yo mama don't wear no drawers. I saw her when she took em off. She threw them in the air...Superman said "I declare!" (We had a whole lot of sayings that came after the second line like...She threw them on the track and the train jumped 50 miles back)"
-Optimistic1, http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page, Illinois, 2000
-end of quote-
The words to that rhyme sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't remember where I had first heard them. Eventually, I remembered that I read a rhyme that was very much like a "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" in the 1938 short story "Big Boy Leaves Home" that is part of the Uncle Tom's Children collection of short stories by the African American writer Richard Wright. In that story, "Your Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" is described as "an old song", and the boys are said to be "cracking" meaning "making up insults". Depending on what state you live in "crackin(g)is also known as "dissin", "rippin" (on) or "snapin". Here's an excerpt of that story as sung by Big Boy and three other boys:
"The ol song goes something like this:
-end of quote-
[UPDATE: January 30, 2019]
Hat tip to Anonymous (Sheila), January 30, 2019 at 10:24 AM for sharing the information that a "Your Mama Don't Wear No Drawer" chant is found in Zora Neil Hurston's 1937 book Their Eyes Were Watching God, page 157 (the paperback version with an after words by Henry Louis Gates). Thanks, Shiela!
-end of January 30, 2019 update-
"Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawer" is traditionally performed in a call & response manner. During her or his "solo", each person is supposed to come up with a different two lined verse that completes the first two set lines of the song. When performed that way, "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" is a prime example of what I call "pre-dozens" rhymes, meaning that this insult rhyme that goes further than set verses taunting rhymes in "training" children how to do the dozens. For more information on the dozens/pre-dozens, read my comments below.
Check out this YouTube video of that rhyme:
Yo Momma Dont Wear No Socks
-Brittney Weaver, Published on December 08, 2007
a sing along we use to sing back n da day so we thought we would make a video out of it. me and my lil sistas
-snip-
Here's my transcription of that video:
Yo mama don't wear no draws (ah ding dong)
I saw her when she took them off (ah ding dong)
She threw them in the tree (ah ding dong)
And the dog refused to pee.
Chorus
Yo mama don't wear no socks (ah ding dong)
I saw her when she took them off (ah ding dong)
She threw them in the sky (ah ding dong)
And Superman refused to fly
Chorus
Yo mama don't wear no socks (ah ding dong)
I saw her when she took them off (ah ding dong)
She put them in ah nest (ah ding dong)
And the birds refused to rest.
Yo mama don't wear no socks (ah ding dong)
I saw her when she took them off (ah ding dong)
She threw them on the wall (ah ding dong)
And the roaches refused to crawl.
Chorus
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Here's a great explanation about "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" from a July 15, 2008 post by Kymberli on a site that seems to be no longer accessible:
"Oh, but the best of all, I mean the absolute best and the one that we still play today is Yo' Mama Don't Wear No Drawers.
Now, before I say another word, let's get one thing straight. You have to put a ghetto lilt on the word "drawers." In this song, it's pronounced draaaws. Got it? Good. Now, the game is a song and the challenge is to take turns adding improv additional verses. It's an elimination game; you're out when you can't figure out a verse before your time is up. The first few verses are always the same, and after those have been sung, the improv verses begin."
-end of quote-
Since at least the 1990s, White Americans (and other races) campers have been introduced to a sanitized version of "Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" which is titled "Your Mama Don't Wear No Socks". And those "poor" campers probably don't know that they are learning a pale imitation of a naughty, creative, pre-dozens insult exchange rhyme. Incidentally, "drawers" mean "panties"/"underwear".
"Yo Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" is also chanted as a military cadence (jodie) and an adult drinking song. It therefore may be posted to websites that may not be suitable for children.
Here's one more example of this song from this page of my Cocojams website that is no longer available:
YO MAMA DON'T WEAR NO DRAWERS (Version #2)
Here is an insult rhyme my sister, cousins, and I used to get into a lot of trouble repeating...but it was so much fun to say them and make up new lines. Birmingham, AL, 1980s and early 90s Yo mama don't wear no draws (ba ba boom is said at the end of every line while you stomp)
[Editor: I reformatted this example adding "ba ba boom" after each verse]
Yo mama don't wear no draws
ba ba boom
i saw when she took them off
ba ba boom
she put em in the washing machine
ba ba boom
ajax couldn't get em clean
ba ba boom
she put em on top of the house
ba ba boom
they scared away mighty mouse
ba ba boom
she put em up under the bed
ba ba boom
you shoulda heard what the roaches said
ba ba boom
she put up on top of the tracks
ba ba boom
that train went 50 miles back
ba ba boom
she put em in the middle of the street
ba ba boom
those cars went beep beep beep
ba ba boom
that's all that i can remember...but the taunt could go on forever. we would add to it every time someone thought of something new. but man, our parents hated us singing this around the house.
-Joi; 3/23/2008
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I'll leave you with one last video of this rhyme, the words of which are found on Cocojams:
Yo Mama don't wear no drawers..... A ding dong
Mitch Aschinger, July 31, 2008
My son (USMC BRAT) singing a jodi about Yo Mama
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EDITORIAL COMMENT [1/13/2013]
I consider "Yo [Your] Mama Don't Wear No Drawers" to be a pre-dozens song. By "pre-dozens" I mean rhyming cheers or song that help young people gain the word/rhyming skills and confidence to compete in real dozens insult exchanges.
"The Dozens is a game of spoken words between two contestants, common in African-American communities, where participants insult each other until one gives up or violence erupts. It is customary for the Dozens to be played in front of an audience of bystanders, who encourage the participants to reply with more egregious insults to heighten the tension and consequently, to be more interesting to watch. Among African-Americans it is also known as "sounding", "joning", "woofing", "wolfing", "sigging", or "signifying",[1][2] while the insults themselves are known as "snaps".
