Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!

Subject: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Squid
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 07:16 PM

Thanks to everyone who replied to the thread I started about songs to sing with children. The songs my kids like best, BY FAR, are the parodies about school and teachers.

Here's a request for lyrics of those kinds of songs. There are a few we know, although we probably do not know all the words to all of the verses of the songs.

Ones like- Heigh Ho Heigh Ho, I bit the teachers toe, That dirty rat, she bit me back...

On top of old smokey all covered with sand, I shot my poor teacher with a green rubber band...

Glory, glory hallelulah Teacher hit me with a ruler...

I searched the databasse for @school @parody and got 11 hits, none were the above classics. None were very suitable for elementary schoolchildren, either.

Here's another fragment I just remembered:

Hark! The herald angels shout Three more days till we get out Three more days till we are free From the penetentiary

Thanks < Advance,

Squid

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Sep 97 - 03:45 AM

Well, here's one for Catholic schools, to the tune of "Caisson Song":

Give a yell, give a cheer
For the nuns who make the beer
In the basement of [St. Rita's] School.....

Sorry, don't know any more.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Earl
Date: 13 Sep 97 - 10:01 AM

I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm here to say
Get rid of your teacher the easy way
Just put a banana peel on the floor
And watch your teacher go sailing out the door

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 13 Sep 97 - 02:58 PM

For some reason the title of this thread reminds me of one from my summer-camp days in the 60s:

Whistle while you work
Hitler is a jerk
Mussolini bit my weenie
Now it doesn't work.

As for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", there's

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school,
We have tortured all the teachers, we have broke the golden rule,
We have went into the office and we shot the principal,
The school is burning down!

Glory, glory for the burning of the school (3x)
The school is burning down.

(Sic. I might even say sic transit gloria.)

On the subject (and possibly from San Francisco?),

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay,
There is no school today!
The teacher passed away
Because of tooth decay.
We threw her in the bay;
She scared the sharks away.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Akiba
Date: 14 Sep 97 - 01:31 AM

Jerry, you have reminded me of this classic from childhood:

Hitler, he only had one ball;
Goering had two, but they were small;
Himmler was somewhat sim'lar,
And Dr. Goebbels had "noebbels" at all!

Also, I remember "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!" like this:

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!
Our school is closed today!
We'll all go out and play,
While teacher's gone away.

If she'd just pass away,
We could play everyday;
Let's do it anyway, (or "Let's do 'er in today!")
Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!

Akiba

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Greg
Date: 28 Sep 97 - 06:52 PM

Heigh ho! Heigh ho! It's off to camp we go! The leaders look like Frankenstein The water tastes like turpentine Heigh ho! Heigh ho!

Heigh ho! Heigh ho! It's off to school we go! With razor blades and hand grenades Heigh ho! Heigh ho!

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Alex
Date: 29 Sep 97 - 12:19 AM

A Scottish one to the tune of "16 Tons"

Well, if ye go tae school dinners, better leave them aside, A lot o' kids didnae and a lot o' kids died. The meat is like iron, the potatoes are steel, And if they don't get ye then the pudding will. I did sixteen sums, and what did I get? Fifteen wrong and six o'the belt. Now, teacher don't ya call me 'cos I can't come I'm stuck tae ma seat wi' chewing gum.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,Caro
Date: 24 Mar 05 - 09:45 AM

I don't even know where i got this one from:

Mary-Anna at the pawn shop door
With a baby in her arms and the basket on the floor
She asked for 7/6d but they only gave her 4
So she knocked the bleeding knocker off the pawn shop door

I'll tell Ma of Mary-Ann
Walking down the street with a nice young man
High heeled shoes and a feather in her cap
That's the way to get the sack

Policeman policeman don't catch me
I've got a wife and a family
How many children have you got
99 and that's the lot

This variation was sung by Alan Breeze (ye gods, how old am i?) on the Billy Cotton Band Show - Sunday lunchtimes.

Lulu had a baby - she called him Sonny Jim
She put him in the bathtub to teach him how to swim
He swam down to the bottom and then up to the top
Lulu got excited and grabbed him by his ...
Haircut, shampoo, ring the barbers bell
And if he doesn't like it
Just tell him, what the!
hey there! say there!
How's about a kiss?
Hey there! say there!
That's the end of this.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: harpgirl
Date: 24 Mar 05 - 07:01 PM

These are wonderful song snippets. I would love to have the entire songs if they exist. I bet gargoyle (that old retired english teacher) would know some of them. (He only misspells his posts because eh doesn't want to come up on the search engines, anyway.)

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Mar 05 - 09:27 PM

GUEST,Caro and others posting here,

For the last two years I have been working on a book for adults about continuity and change in children's game songs & rhymes.

I would LOVE to have more demographical information about the examples posted here {and also permission to use them in this compilation!}

Caro, the examples that you posted that I am most interested in are "Policeman, Policeman" and "Lula Had A Baby".

Would you please provide this information: the city, state, country, and approximate years the rhymes were recited, and by whom {boys & girls, or just girls, or just boys}. It would also be great if you could include how these rhymes were performed, e.g. as handclaps; jump rope; ball bouncing; circle games; to choose "it"; just for fun during field trip bus rides; etc.

Thanks!


Azizi

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 04:18 PM

Have a look at _A Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book_ (Marcia & Jon Pankake, Eds., Viking, 1988). It has a lot of that sort of thing, including most of the songs you mention.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. :||

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 05:45 PM

Back circa 1939 or so, when the AFL vs. CIO battle was raging, the (politically incorrect) urchins were singing:

"Heigh Ho!, Heigh Ho!
We've joined the CIO
We pay our dues
To the dirty Jews
Heigh Ho!, Heigh Ho!"

Folklore ain't always nice.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: bill\sables
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 06:56 PM

Our wee school's a good wee school
The best wee school in Glasgae
The only thing that's wrang wi it
Is a baldie heided master
He goes te the pub on Saturday
He goes te the Kirk on Sunday
Te pray te the Lord te give him strength
Te welter the weeans on Monday

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 26 Mar 05 - 02:14 PM

From a "higher" school:

High above Cayuga's waters
There's an awful smell
Some say it's Cayuga's waters
Some say it's Cornell

Aloha,
Mark
(Princeton '73, and my little sister went to Cornell. Of course.)

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Haruo
Date: 26 Mar 05 - 05:00 PM

Jerry wrote:

Whistle while you work
Hitler is a jerk
Mussolini bit my weenie
Now it doesn't work.

That was part of my childhood repertoire, too, but it was definitely his weenie, not mine. (Not sure if it meant M bit H's or M's own.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Severn
Date: 26 Mar 05 - 06:59 PM

Here's a few from my childhood:

Oh beautiful
For spaceship guys
God shed his skin on thee,
And crown thy good with Robin Hood
From sea to shining sea



They're coming today
To take me away
The men in the little white suits.
They think Im insane
'Cause I think I'm a train
But I really am! TOOT! TOOT!

I hate Bosco
It's full of TNT
Mommy puts it in my milk
To try to poison me
Buy I fooled Mommy
And put it in her tea
Now I have no mommy
To try to poison me.

(Whatever happened to Bosco, and Cocoa Marsh, for that matter?)

And all the countless kids' verses to Popeye The Sailor Man probably deserve their own thread, but stuff like this abounded:

I'm Popeye The Sailor Man
I live in a garbage can
I eat all the worms
And spit out the germs
I'm Popeye The Sailor Man, TOOT! TOOT!

And somehow, versions of WWII songs were sung:

First Marine ate a bean, parlez-vous
Second Marine ate a bean, Parlez-vous
Third Marine ate a bean
and Phhhttt! all over the submarine
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous

First Marine jumped a fence, parlez-vous
Second Marine jumped the fence, parlez-vous
Third Marine jumped the fence
And milked a cow with a monkey wrench
Hinky-dinky parlez-vous

(There was a whole thread's worth of verses to that one, too)

All For Now,
Severn

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Severn
Date: 27 Mar 05 - 07:55 AM

We not only sang 'em after school, but also after Sunday School:


(to "Tramp,Tramp, Tramp")
Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red or yellow, black or white
They are tasty, every bite
Jesus loves the little children of the world
YUM! YUM!

And there were many who never wanted to sing the patriotic ones at the school assemblies right. The inevitable "Play ball!" at the end of the Anthem or even:

Oh say can you see
Any bed bugs on me
If you do
Take a few
"cause I got them from you...




(For the person who wanted demographics, early to mid 1950's Washington, DC area)

Severn

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 27 Mar 05 - 08:28 AM

Thanks Severn for the demographical information.

I also remember the first part of the bedbug rhyme from Atlantic City, New Jersey 1950s. I appreciate the second part which places this squarely in the 'rip';'jeer' category of rhymes.

Children are sooo creative!

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,elanorien
Date: 28 Mar 05 - 02:13 AM

My childhood jump-rope song.


down in the valley
where the green grass grows
there sat [girl's name]
as sweet as a rose
she sang,
she sang,
she sang so sweet
along came [boy's name]
and kissed her on the cheek
how many kisses did she get,
1,2,3,4... (until you missed)

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Mar 05 - 07:40 AM

The Internet in general and Mudcat in particular could be a great way to collect, share, and preserve children's rhymes and game songs
EXCEPT that most posters don't include any demographics such as when and where {city, state, country} these rhymes were recited and these games were played..

not to mentioned who played them {girls only; boys only?? girls & boys ???};, the age ranges of children playing them; the method of play; and how the rhymes and game songs were learned...

also not to mention the race and ethnicity of the children performing rhymes and game songs {since it is possible that just as differences are likely to occur over space and time, differencs may occur among different ethnic & racial groups...

[For instance, in my limited collection of rhymes in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area over the past 8 years, I have found that some rhymes differed from one African American neighborhood to another African American neighborhood within the same time in the same city]

Of course, even when such information is provided over the Internet, there is a question about authenticity. People could misremember or horrors of horrors!!-people could even lie about which rhymes they recited and which games they played as children.

But, still, I'm convinced that we 'Catters in particular are missing a wonderful opportunity to document children's rhymes and game songs.

Having the words to these rhymes "beats a blank", but please think about future generations who will be interested in knowing more about the games children played and the rhymes children rhymed in the bad ole days of the middle & late 20th century & the early 21st century.

Thank you.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Haruo
Date: 29 Mar 05 - 02:06 PM

I was born in 1954 in Seattle (Washington, USA) and have lived within twenty or thirty miles of my birthplace ever since except for one year (mid-67-mid-68) in Koishikawa 2-tyôme (Bunkyô-ku, Tôkyô-to, Japan) and two years (1972-4) in New Haven. I'm pretty sure my recollection of "Whistle while you work" dates to the early '60s when I lived at 2311 North 59th Street in Seattle. On the other hand I think I learned my childhood "On top of old Smoky (rubber band)" verses at the Baptist Assembly in Greenlake, Wisconsin (also early to mid-60s).

Haruo

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 29 Mar 05 - 02:25 PM

Thanks, Haruo for that demographical information.

Is your "On top of old Smoky (rubber band)" verses posted in a Mudcat thread?



Azizi

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 29 Mar 05 - 02:30 PM

On top of old smokey, all covered with hair... it's not the same smokey, it's Smokey the Bear...

Subject: RE: Khrushchev and Rosellini
From: Haruo
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 03:52 AM

Yes, my old Smoky song is here in the oh-so-usefully titled thread "Help: who wrote the song that goes like this".

An addendum re: "Hitler is a jerk": although I was aware of the Mussolini text as a kid (I'm pretty sure my dad told me about it) the version we actually sang in the neighborhood was

Whistle while you work,
Hitler is a jerk,
Rosellini bit his weenie,
Now it doesn't work.

Interestingly (?), former Governor Rosellini has been in the news recently (well, a year ago maybe) for his role in the Seattle City Council "Strippergate" scandal, which led to the electoral defeat of several councilperoffspring. ("-peroffspring" is the non-sexist, non-ageist version of "-man")

Haruo

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Deda
Date: 30 Mar 05 - 11:34 PM

From a New England prep school, single gender, mid 1960s:

I go to (three strong beats -- like "JohnSon School") so pity me
There ain't a (girl / boy)in the vicinity
And every night at eight they shut the gate
I don't know what the hell I ever-came-here-for

I'm gonna pack my bags and run-away ...

(Damn there was a second verse about escape plans, smoking and drinking -- but it's escaped ME.) I wish I knew how to describe this tune -- everyone knows it. It sounds like a school or military song.

Then there was my daughter's favorite from the mid 1980s, Colorado, to the tune of the Kids-R-Us commerical:

I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Special Ed kid,
My Mamma dropped me on my head and look what she did!
I can rub my head, I can chew my gum,
Oh, it's great to be a Special Ed kid!

There may have been other words but that's all I remember. I'll email her and ask.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Muttley
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 08:05 AM

How about these from the 60's in Australia

Ta Ra Ra Boom-de-ay
I'll take your clothes away
And while your standing there
I'l pinch your underwear!

OR

While shepherds washed their socks by night all seated 'round the tub
An angel of the Lord came down and gave each sock a rub

And on the Christmas theme

Good King Wenceslas looked out
In his pink pajamas
Sliding down the bannister,
Eating green ban-a-nas
Brightly shone the moon that night
Could have been mych finer
When a poor man came in sight
In his Mini Mi-i-nor!

AND

Captain Cook chased a chook
All around Australia
Lost his pants in the middle of France
and found em in Tasmania

(Don't ask me how France gets into this one - we just used to sing em)

Ahhhhhh the memories!!!!

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,MrsDave at Work
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 02:00 PM

some of these kids songs with violent themes are mildy creepy given all the 'classroom avenger' type nut kids that have shot up schools in the past decade.

Of course, kids have been singing violent songs about bruning down schools and tortuering teahcers for many decades without incidents like the ones we have seen of late. Obviously these songs have no relationship to the violence.

However, I wonder... are there any new ones popping up with references to Columbine and the other school tragedies?

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,Bradley
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 06:01 PM

B I N G O
go Bingo
B I N G O
B I N G O
go Bingo
Down at the Bingo farm
Jared drives a cadillac,
Trudy drives a ford,
Bradley rides a donkey and beats it with a board.
Behind the fridgerator...there was a pain of glass...
little Bradley sat on it and broke his little.....
assssk me no more questions,
I'll tell you no more lies....
if you don't believe me ask Bradley before he dies.

Anyone remember this one?

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: 12-stringman
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 06:54 PM

From my own collection of songs that I have made up other verses to, here goes one.

Set to the tune of: Battle Hymn Of The Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school,
We have tortured all the teachers, we have broken all the rules,
We have barbequed the principal and destroyed the P.T.A.,
Us kids are marching on!

Chorus: Glory, glory, halleujah!
Teacher beat me with a ruler,
I hit her in the bean with a frozen Jimmy Dean,
And she ain't my teacher no more.

Another is this: Heigh-Ho! Heigh Ho! It's off to work we go,
With razor blades and handgrenades and shotgun shells galore.

I had another 3 verses to this one but they have slipped my mind right now.

-Larry

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 06:57 PM

Bradley,
'your' rhyme seems to be a combination of a couple of children's rhymes: "Bingo"["Bobby Bingo"], and "Miss Susie [Miss Susie] Had A Steamboat" {tugboat]. 'Miss Susie' is a profanity avoidance rhyme that is particularly similar to the rhyme you asked about.

See this current Mudcat thread for examples I just posted of
Miss Susie Had A SteamboataLo

These rhymes share a number of lines including "Behind the fridgerator...there was a pain of glass"; and "ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lie".

"Don't ask me no questions/And I won't tell you no lies' is the title and lyrics of a secular slave song that is included in Thomas W.Talley's 1922 book "Negro Folk rhymes" [Kennikat Press edition, 1968, pp 65-66]. That song is about a cook who appropriates some apples from her Master's & Mistress' kitchen to make some pies for her family.

Incidently, "Tweedleelee" is a very widely known handclap rhyme among African Americans from the mid 1970s that is based on the R&B "Rockin Robin" song. For some reason the singer James Brown is found in the second verse of that risque rhyme layin in the gutter with a piece of glass stickin up his-butt {no child, youth, or adult who recited the rhyme to me ever said the rhyming word "ass".This seems to me to be another example of a profanily avoidance rhyme that really did avoid saying the taboo word..

Also I'm wonder if the "Bradley" mentioned in the rhyme presented in the previous post has anything to do with the various "Brady" rhymes.

Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 "On The Trail Of Negro Folk Songs" [Folklore Associates addition, 1963, p.86} has a number of versions of 'Brady'. The first verse of one of these versions is:

Twinkle Twinkle little star,
Brady came down on-Gabrial car
Kickin' out the windows and knickin' out doors.
Tryin' to play with Diamond Joe!
Been on the jolly so long.

-snip-

Here's the first verse of another version of the 'Brady'song:
Twinkle Twinkle little star,
Brady came home on a cable car.
Well he was fdrunk an out of sight.
Had n't been sober in many a night.

-snip-

Of course, this rhyme may have nothing to do with your query, but then again it may...

Enjoy!


Azizi

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Severn
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 08:14 PM

Twinkle, Twinkle, little star
Who the Hell d'ya think you are?
Up above the world so high,
You think you own the whole damn sky!


But then we'd also just interpose other galactic stuff and rhyme it:


Twinkle, twinkle, little sun
How I wonder what you've done

Twinkle, twinkle, little moon
How I wonder what you're doin'

Twinkle, Twinkle, little Earth
How I wonder what you're worth

Twinkle, twinkle little sky
How it makes me wonder why


...and on down the cosmos. Also done with "When You Wish Upon A Star", but Jimminy/Cliff Edwards/Ukulele Ike could hit more high notes than most of us.

Severn


When you wish upon a star
May be close, but no cigar.........

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Neighmond
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 03:54 AM

From 1986-8, in Spirit Lake Iowa. Learned from Kirk Crosby, who was older than me by a matter of years.

High-ho, high ho, I bit the teacher's toe!
She bit me back, the filthy hack, High ho! High ho! High

hooooo, hi ho, it's off to school we go
with hang-grenades and razor blades, hi, ho! high ho! High Ho!


'nother!:

On top of old smoky, all covered with sand,
I shot my poor teacher, with a big rubber band!
I shot her with pleasure, I shot her with pride!
I couldnt've missed her...she's eighty feet wide!

school yard staples.

Chaz

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Flash Company
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 06:57 AM

elanorien---
We had:-
Down in the valley where nobody knows,
There lived (girls name) without any clothes,
Up came John Thomas with top hat and stick.........

From there on it is too obscene for mixed company!

Caro---
Further verses to 'Lulu'

Sonny Jim was forty, he took a trip by boat,
They ran into an iceberg and couldn't stay afloat,
Sonny Jim was drowning but Lulu didn't care,
When he started sinking she grabbed him by the
Haircut Shampoo, ring the barber's bell...etc

Somewhere up in heaven an angel calls the roll,
Lulu had forgotten that nature takes it's toll,
When she grabbed poor Sonny as he fell into the soup,
She found to her amazement that Sonny wore a
Toupee Shampoo ring the barber's bell.... Etc

FC

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Haruo
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:34 PM

I knew several variants of "the burning of the school", but I think the one I thought of as canonical went:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school,
We have tortured all the teachers, we have broken every rule,
We're marching down the hall to hang the principal,
Us kids are marching on!

Glory, glory, halleujah!
Teacher beat me with a ruler,
I knocked her to the floor with a loaded forty-four,
And that teacher don't teach no more.

This was, of course, sung with no intention of shooting (or hanging) anybody, and the adults in our vicinity knew better than to take it so.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: jeffp
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:57 PM

We three kings of orient are
Trying to smoke a rubber cigar
It was loaded, it exploded
Now we're on yonder star!

Late 50's Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,freddy
Date: 12 Apr 05 - 05:15 PM

miss lucy had a sailboat
the sailboat had a bell (ding ding)
miss lucy went to heaven and the sailboat went to

hello operator please give me #9
and if you disconnect me, i'll chop off your

behind the 'fridgerator there was a piece of glass
miss lucy sat upon it, and it went right up her

ask me no more questions,
please tell me no more lies
the boys are in the washroom, zipping up their

flies are in the meadow,
bees are in the park
miss lucy and her boyfriend are kissing in the

dark is like a movie, a movie's like a show,
a show is like my tv screen and that is all i

know i know my father, i know i know my ma
i know i know my sister with the
14 acre
14 acre
14 acre bra bra bra!

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 12 Apr 05 - 06:19 PM

The "Chiquita Banana" song posted by Earl in 1997 was known to me around 1963-64. It was based on a catchy TV commercial for Chiquita bananas. "The Burning of the School" was from the late '50s.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 01:41 PM

From another Mudcat thread on children's rhymes I found out about a website called Wheee Blog! that is dedicated to schoolyard games. That Wheee! Blog thread has a lot of versions of "Miss Susie Had A Steamboat". Here's one that I hadn't seen before:

Miss Susie:
Miss Susie had a steamboat.
The steamboat had a bell,
ding-ding,
Miss Susie went to heaven,
her steamboat went to hell..
..o operator. Please give me number nine.
And if you disconnect me,
I'll kick your fat behind..
..The fridgerator,
there was a piece of glass.
Miss Susie fell upon it,
And popped her big fat ass..
..k me no more questions.
Tell me no more lies,
The boys are in the bathroom,
zipping up their flies..
..are in the meadow.
Bees are in the park.
The boys and girls are kissing,
Way past after dark,
..er than the ocean,
deeper than the sea,
darker than the underwear
my sister puts on me.
-posted by "Liz again." at April 12, 2005 04:02 PM {re-posted with
permission of members of Wheee! Blog}."

-snip-

Click here for
Wheee! Blog Schoolyard Games

Incidently, several times Halifax, one of the members of Wheee! Blog, has asked that posters include such demographic information such when and where the rhymes posted were performed. However, it's rare that any poster there does so.

Posters to this Mudcat thread are doing much better than Wheee! Blog posters in including such information. But it's probably unfair to compare ourself with Wheee! Blog since Mudcat is a folk based discussion forum that likely has a considerably older age of posters than those who post on Wheee Blog's schoolyard games thread.

Anyway, thanks for remembering to include demographic information with your rhymes!

Ms Azizi

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 11:53 PM

O_O This is sung to the tune of 'Miss Susie had a Steamboat' (and when I learned it, Miss Susie was Miss Mary)
Miss Molly had a baby,
The baby's name was Tim,
She put him in a bathtub,
To see if he could swim.
He ate up all the water,
He drank up all the soap,
He woulda ate the bathtub but it wouldn't fit his throat!
Miss Molly called the doctor,
Miss Molly called the nurse,
Miss Molly called the lady with the alligator purse!
Measles said the doctor,
Measles said the nurse,
Pizza said the lady with the alligator purse!
Miss Molly shot the doctor,
Miss Molly stabbed the nurse,
Miss Molly paid the lady with the alligator purse!

This next one is a clapping game:
I went to Chinese bakery to buy a loaf of bread bread bread
He put it in a plastic bag and this is what he said said said
My name is Gay Hi Pickle Lo
Gay Hi
Gay Hi
Gay Hi
Pickle Lo
Cha cha cha cha cha

Early '90's, Calgary, Canada

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 03:18 AM

Dear "Mrs Dave At Work" - odd moniker there!

Children have been singing tragedy / violence / sexual innuendo songs for centuries. The two classic examples are:

Ring-a-ring O' Roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down

Is, as most here would know, a lyric rhyme which originated (as far as we in the "Anglo-Saxon" west are concerned) in Bubonic / Pneumonic - plagued Britain (specifically, London) of the 17th Century (possibly earlier as the Black Death also had a massive impact on Europe and Britain in the 14th Century as well - when a third of the population perished)

The translation is:

RING-a-RING O' ROSES: The rash initially raised as "rosettes" which became open lesions and were accompanied by the more painful, pus-filled 'buboles'
A POCKET FULL OF POSIES: Physicians traditionally carried 'posies' which were bunches of sweet-smelling herbs; Lavender, Thyme and Rosemary were considered VERY efficacious. This was done NOT to cover the stink of the disease or the (literally) thousands of decomposing bodies; but because the doctors of the times were convinced that disease was transmitted by smell!
ATISHOO! ATISHOO!: The sound of a sneeze alerted all those around an afflicted person that they were a new victim of the plague. A single sneeze was OK - it was repeated sneezing that scared people!
WE ALL FALL DOWN: DEAD !!!!!

This is reportedly a doggerel concocted by children of those times which helped them deal with the tragedy.

The second example is the ubiquitous "Rock-a-Bye Baby"

everyone knows the rhyme:
Rock-a-Bye Baby, In the tree-top
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall;
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

HOWEVER: (there's always a 'however' isn't there?

the SECOND verse is the one which educated children that morals were for the ordinary folk, but the gentry had their OWN rules in this regard. It runs thus:

Rock-a-bye Baby, your cradle is green
Father's a nobleman, Mother's a queen;
Sally's the lady who wears a gold ring
And Johnny's the drummer that drums for the king.

Here we have the baby and his/her parentage laid bare: Mother is a queen and father is a nobleman; yet the king (supposedly the queen's husband) is NOT the baby's father.

Conclusion: "Baby" is truly a bastard!

Thee is also a political / regal snub implicit in the "Cradle will rock / Baby will fall" part of the rhyme as well - but I can't remember what it is.

Subject: abcd
From: GUEST,(3rI
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 06:28 PM

self explanitory

abcdefg wash those boy germs ofa me gotta bat gotta ball gotta baby in the hall gotta wish gotta wish gotta freeze

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 06:46 PM

Guest, is there a game you play when you sing that? It sounds like it from the bat & ball and the "gotta freeze" line.

Interesting rhyme!

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 08:20 PM

Jeri,

I hope that GUEST,3rI responds to your question. It will be interesting to hear what she or he says about whether that rhyme is done with handclap routines like others I've collected that "sound" like it.

Imo, the rhyme that guest 3rI shared sounds like the "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhymes.

Here's an example that was sent to me from Deena Garrison-Stevensen {Northern California, as recited by her 6 year old girl and other children in the playground}

MISS SUE
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Her real name is Susanna
Sittin' in the rocking chair
eating baby crackers watching the clock go
Tick tock tick tock bananna rock, tick toc, tic toc bananna rock
A-B-C-D-E-F-G wash those spiders off of me,
Mooscha, Mooscha, I want my mommy
Mooscha mooscha I know karate
Mooscha moosch oops I am sorry
Mooscha mooscha FREEZE!

****

The "eating baby crackers" is usually given as "eating Betty Crocker" {meaning the pastry made from the directions that the famous cookbook editor Betty Crocker provided}

For another variant of this rhyme, see this example that I collected from African American girls and boys, ages 5-12 years, Pittsburgh, PA area, 1999:

MISS SUE, SCOOBY DOO
Miss Sue, Scooby Do
Miss Sue from Alabama
Sittin at the table
peeling mashed potatoes
waitin for the clock to go
boom tick tock
boom ticky wally wally
boom tick tock
boom ticky wally wally
Stop!
Ah 2 more times
boom tick tock
boom ticky wally wally
boom tick tock
boom ticky wally wally
Ah 1 more time
boom tick tock
boom ticky wally wally
boom tick tock
boom ticky wally wally
Ah no more times.

---

Btw, a lot of children's rhymes end with FREEZE! Of course, this means to immediately stop movement {usually maintaining a dramatic pose until the rhyme starts again}.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 08:31 PM

Here is another example of "Miss Sue" that was submitted to my website Cocojams by darlenevil on 2/1/2005 along with the following comments:

Hi:-) I just wanted to submit a very popular version of the
'handclap rhyme' song "Miss Sue From Alabama".
I lived in Indiana my whole life although I changed schools alot, and this song seemed to be known by every other African American child I met. Here's how we all sang it:

Miss Sue! *clap clap*
Miss Sue! *clap clap*
Miss Sue from Alabama
Her real names Suzyanna
Sittin in a rockin chair
Eatin Betty Crocker bread
Watchin the clock go
Tick tock tick tock Banana rock!
Tick tock tick tock Banana rock!
A-b-c-d-e-f-g Wash them spots right offa me!
Moocha Moocha Moocha Freeze!

*literally freeze on the last clap,
try to stay still longer than your friend

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Jeri
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 09:00 AM

Azizi, your website is wonderful!

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 10:04 AM

Thanks, Jeri.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: NH Dave
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 03:07 PM

For those in the US interested in collected children's songs, doggerel, and counting out rhymes, try to find a copy of Miss Mary Mack all Dressed in Black a collection of songs kids sang in northern Vermont in the early 20th century. These songs, collected by Scott E. Hastings, give us a look at folk links back to England, Ireland, and Europe, the source of much of our current population.

Scott's been dead for a few years now, so the best place to look for this book is on Amazon, where I found my copy.

Dave

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 07:44 PM

What is the term given to the rhymes/verses/sayings used to choose who will or will not be "it" in a game? Is that what is meant by "counting out rhymes" (cf. previous post)?

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: Azizi
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 09:16 PM

I've seen these terms used by adults to categorize children's playground rhymes where the last remaining child is selected as the seacher for hide & go seek, or {saying the rhyme two times in succession} the last two children become the team captains:

choosing "it"

counting out rhymes

elimination rhymes

****

Note that contrary to some books I have read, it seems to me that more often than not children want to be choosen as "it".

BTW: when the two team captains are chosen, one at a time they chose members of their team by calling out the name of the remaining children. I believe that it still hurts to be the last child or one of the last child selected. When the children I meet with choose team captains, they use a choosing it rhyme like:

Eenie meenie
minie mo
catch a tiger by the toe
if he hollers let him go
ee-nie meen-ie min-ie mo.

The children huddle close together in a semi-circle type formation. The child who selects the captains {because he or she raised his hand first and me or another adult picked him or her] stands in front of the other children. Each child in the semi-circle extends his or her right foot forward. On each word {or in the case of the last line, on each syllable} the "leader" points to each successive child's foot. The leader can not skip a child or add additional words or syllables. The child who the leader is pointing to on the word "mo" {pronounced "moh"} is out and the rhyme is repeated until there is only one child left. That child is "it" or [in the case of competitive games with two teams-one of the team captains]. The same "leader" then starts the rhyme again with the remainding children to pick the second team captain.

However, when that game [such as relay races]is played, and the group has time to play that game again, the way we do it in my groups is that the two new captains are the two children who were picked last.

I think doing this helps build those last picked children's
self-esteem.

Subject: RE: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, I Bit the Teacher's Toe!
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 25 Apr 06 - 01:23 PM

Caro from March '05, are you still checking in?

Would love to have an ABC of the tune to "Mary-Anna at the pawnshop door" -- can you do it for us?

I haven't been able to find it anywhere, so you're the only hope.

Thanks! Bob