Golly, I never though about our soldiers marching chants being picked up by kids for their chants, but it makes sense. A lot of Army brats living and going to school on many Army posts . . . they would very likely hear many of the chants that the soldiers yelled out as they marched around the post ("...Little pitchers have big ears." from "Sam Stone" by John Prine).

These same kids moved about often, generally attending many different schools, both on and off post schools, so the chants they overheard, and their own adaptations of same, could very easily have been spread throughout the country in short order.

Hmmm! Maybe the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in Podunk really does have an effect on the winds and weather pattern in Shanghai! Eu