Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Oct 09 - 05:12 AM

Well, I was 8, & the girls must have been about 10; & I knew right enough.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: Jos
Date: 08 Oct 09 - 04:54 AM

I'm sure I didn't know the price of eggs (or much else, other than icecream - 6d) when I was eight.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: Crowhugger
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 11:57 PM

Potatoes were also used in Ottawa, Ont. in the '60's to decide who was 'it' for tag, hide-and-go-seek etc. When we were three to play skipping, potatoes decided who had to turn first--when so few in number we preferred to tie one end of the rope to a tree or signpost so that 2 could jump together; the most fun was in using contrasting numerical patterns for each skipper. With lots of skippers available there was typically someone not very skilled, in which case there would be a "kind" volunteer to take the end knowing it wouldn't be long until she would skip. During school recess, we often added to any chant "all around the barn yard" at least a few times, till we tired of the running.

~CH.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 07:19 PM

One potato etc was used in London in the 50's to decide who was 'he'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 07:17 PM

Thanks for posting MtheGM. It's a charming little rhyme.

To tell you the truth, I doubt that the actual price of eggs had anything to do with the rhyme's appeal to that little girl.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 04:24 AM

... and, to recap, it was the complete ignorance [or ignoring - not quite same thing] of the actual current reality regarding the price & availability of the comestible in question which so struck me even at age of 8 — & still does!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 04:21 AM

With us, 'one potato' was used more for counting out than for skipping: not that such would be an exclusive usage, of course — I think Opies record its use for both.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 04:19 AM

Only the mention of the penny in common, seems to me — which was then the child's concept of money·in·general — still is, to my surprise; just the other day I heard a mother tell her toddler in a shop that she couldn't buy him what he was whingeing for 'because Mummy hasn't got enough pennies'. (Of course the rhythms are similar too; but they would be if both used for same activity.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 04:17 AM

And then there was:

One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four
Five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes, more

A bit tedious, that one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A skipping [jump-rope] chant
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 07 Oct 09 - 04:13 AM

Sounds like a variant of Hot Cross Buns:

Hot cross buns, hot cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns
Buy them for your daughters, buy them for your sons . . .

Subject: Lyr Add: EGGS A PENNY EACH
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 08:27 AM

I have never forgotten, in Northampton in 1940 when I was 8, watching a girl skipping [jumping rope] to the following [which is not in DigiTrad's Jump Rope Chants, nor in Opies' Lore & Language or Street & Playground]:—

Eggs a penny each
Eggs a penny each
Look Mum
Buy some
Eggs a penny each

I remember thinking at the time that it must be a rhyme from another time, as this was the second year of WWii and eggs were strictly rationed and almost unobtainable; and certainly cost more than 1d each. The anomaly didn't appear to have occurred to the skipping girl or her watching and admiring circle of friends.