The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102055   Message #2090777
Posted By: Azizi
30-Jun-07 - 06:50 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Play Ground Hand Jives
Subject: RE: Folklore: Play Ground Hand Jives
Eugene, is this the "pretty Dutch girl" rhyme that you can't remember?

I AM A PRETTY LITTLE DUTCH GIRL

I am a pretty little Dutch girl.
As pretty as can be, be, be
And all the boys in the baseball team
Go crazy over me, me, me

My boy friend's name is Fatty,
He comes from Senoratti
With turned up toes and a pimple on his nose,
And this is how the story goes:

My mother sent me to the shop,
And told me not to stay, stay, stay
I met my boyfriend on the way
And stayed till Christmas Day, Day, Day .

First he gave me peaches,
Then he gave me pears
Then he gave me 25 cents
To kiss him on the stairs, stairs, stairs.
I gave him back his peaches,
I gave him back his pears,
I gave him back his 25 cents
And kicked him down the stairs, stairs, stairs.

One day when I was walking,
I saw my true love talking,
To a pretty little girl
With a strawberry curl,
And this is what he said:
I will T-A-K-E take you
to the P-A-R-K park,
I will K-I-S-S kiss you
In the D—R-K,
I will L-O-V-E love you
All the T-M-E time,
And the wedding bells will chime

"This light-hearted love story would be recognized as American even if the earliest recording did not come from New York. It appears to have arrived in Britain in 1959, when it was first noted, and it spread through the country like wildfire. A girl fround Twickenham taught it to the children of her new school in Wilmslow. A girl from
London SE8 taught it to the children in her new school in Worchester. A girl brought it back to her school in Spennymoor from the children's ward of Durham County Hospital where 'every was playing it". …But oral tradition, under pressure could not preserve the unfamiliar words, which diversified charmingly. The boy friend Fatty, originally from Cincinatti, is now from "Sixolatti, "Switzerlatti", "Madagassi", ot 'an Irish Naafi",; or his identiy iow "Tony from the land of Palony', or 'Shallow from Portomallow', or 'Martin from the Isle of Tartan', or "Sailor from Venezueloa' {it seems that rhyming a boy's name with a home town is part of the game}; or he has 'a red, red nose and cherries on his toes", or 'a pickle on his nose and ten black toes, 'or bubble gum feet that smell so sweet".

The text given here is an assemblage of all the possible component parts of the story which stem from different places. Children most often combine the first, second, and fifth parts , or the first, third, and fourth, In the very many versions collected almost every combination has been found, except all five parts in one version."

{text & example found in Iona and Peter Opies, "The Singing Game" p.452}