Subject: RE: Lyr: Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts
From:
Azizi
Date: 03 Sep 07 - 10:12 AM
I've been curious about this rhyme for some time, and for what it's worth, I'd like to share these observations:
In all my years of collecting children's rhymes {my "serious" collection began in 1997}, I've never had anyone who identified themselves racially as Black American or any other "person of color" {such as Latino/a} admit to knowing this "Green Gobs Of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" rhyme or any other such "yucky" rhyme {as I term this type of childrn's rhyme for lack of a better term}.
I'll go further to say that "Green Gobs Of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" appears to be one example of a children's rhyme that is very well known among non-Blacks {in the USA, at least} but rarely known among Black/Latina people {at least among those persons I've interviewed and among those people who have identified themselves by race on my website which to a large part is devoted to the presentation of children's rhymes...though admittedly not many persons who submit rhymes to that website identify themselves by race/ethnicity}.
My personal experiences has shaped this theory that "Green Gobs Of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" seems to be largely unknown among African Americans. I don't remember that rhyme-or any other example of "yucky" rhymes from my childhood in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s. And when I have specifically asked individual African Americans or groups of African Americans adults, teens, and children about this rhyme, I've not found anyone who has said that they know it.
I have stated and will emphasize the fact that I am very aware that my seach for Black folks who know this rhyme has definitely been limited and has been conducted in an unscientific manner {in the sense that there certainly has not been any control group or strict tabulation of when, where, how, who, and how many people I have asked this question}. However, that said, my "survey" has included numerous children, teens, and adults-mostly in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area but also elsewhere-who participated and volunteered to recite and perform rhymes they know or remembered in what were ongoing [once a week cultural groups] or were participants in one time special programming game song/rhymes sessions that my daughter and I facilited within the Pittsburgh area between 1997-2006, or who were/are folks who I've communicated with as a result of them emailing me via my website. It also should be noted that a number of the African Americans who I've asked about their memory of or their familiarity with Great Green Globs or other such rhymes are {or have been} school teachers or school administrators in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in Southern New Jersey {family members and others}. Thus, they are persons who from the 1980s to date have had access to a "large" number of African American {and in New Jersey, also Latino children}.
None of these "informants" remember this rhyme from their childhood or from their teen hood or in their adult hood. And none of them indicated to me that they have ever heard children in their schools reciting this rhyme {though they have shared with me the "titles" and the words of other rhymes that they have heard children recite from their schools, families, and communities].
If this definitely unscientific finding is true, then I wonder why it is that Great Green Gobs etc appears to be much better known among White Americans than it appears to be known among non-White children. {Furthermore, this rhyme appears to be fondly remembered among White folks, while mention of its title or my reciting its words routinely evokes a "Say what?? or Yuck!" response among Black folks}.
If this rhyme really is largely unknown among African Americans, my theory as to why this can be summarized like this: Black children are and have been much more "in to" rhymes that are composed of two/four sentence formulaic rhymes or near rhymes, and which are percussive and which have accompanying movements. It appears to me that White children may not be as interested in these features for children's rhymes. Btw, I'm assuming that "Great Green Gobs etc" is recited without any accompanying body movements such as handclapping, or jumping rope, or ball bouncing, or doing choreographed, synchronized, percussive foot stomping routines. I'm very interested in knowing is this assumption true, meaning is "Great Green Gobs etc" is recited with no accompanying body movements?
I'm also wondering about the alliterative aspect of this rhyme. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any children's rhymes that seem to be well known among Black children, teens, and adults {who I've known and interacted with, anyway} which are alliterative. This is not to say that the words to rhymes aren't important to Black folks, but maybe-generally speaking-words may be important to us in different ways than in the alliterative sense...
Fwiw, I'm sharing these thoughts as part of my ongoing "mission" to explore the differences and/or similarities between the ways that the same or similar rhymes may be performed by people over time and over space and within different racial/ethnic groups within the same time periods {and sometimes within the same geographical spaces}.
For these reasons, I believe that race/ethnicity is {and should be} as valid a part of the demographical information that rhyme collectors document or attempt to document as are indices such as the informant/s gender, age, geographical location, the date or decade the informant remembers first learning the rhyme example, the informant's ideas about the meaning of the rhyme, particularly with regard to different slang terms and other colloquial expressions found in the rhyme example, the informant's information about how s/he learned the rhyme, and the way/s the informant perform/ed that particular rhyme.
There are some folks who mildly or vehemently disagree with my position about the validity of documenting an children's rhyme informant's race/ethnicity. However, I very firmly stand by this position {in spite of the "There she goes again" responses I have received and will probably continue to receive because of this position here and elsewhere}.
For the purposes of folkloric research and/or the folkloric "record", I'd be interested in any comments from Mudcat members and guests about these observations.
Thanks,
Azizi
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