eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jul 10 - 06:15 PM

As children living in London in the 1960s/70s we used to say the following:-

Eeni meeni maca racka,
rare rye domin acka,
Chicka pocka lolli poppa,
Om pom push!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Chloe
Date: 06 May 10 - 07:36 AM

I never realised there were so many different versions or the chant.
I've forgotten the last part but we said...

Eeny meeny, maka raka
rare raa dumaraka
chicka barley lollipop
a red, white or blue?

Then the person being pointed at would choose between red, white or blue and the chant would continue..

e.g
blue=
blue is for sky,sky,sky
blue is for sky, so out goes you!

I think white was for cloud, but I can't remember what red stood for!!

Birmingham England

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,RobinD
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 02:56 PM

Well, let's keep this thread going for ever! Mine (South Staffordshire, around 1950) was:

Eeny meeny mackeracka
Rare rye dumeracka
Chickabocker lollipopper
Rum pum PUSH

And if you didn't like the answer when someone was rejected at push you ignored it and went on with:

O U T spells out so out you GO.

And yes, we also used the normal eeny, meeny minie mo (with "if" he hollers, not "when").

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Rachel
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 02:11 PM

Eany meany maka raka rare rye dominaka chika poka lollipop rom pom push! I love this rhyme and still use it daily lol! People think your crazy but then they realise the fasination and need to learn! He he x

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,harri
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 08:58 AM

i learnt one which goes:

Eenie Meanie mackaracka
Dare door dominacka
Licka Locka lollipoppa
Om pom poosh OUT!

then the person who landed on 'out' was out of the circle, lol thats just how we played =]
x

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Ben Knowles
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 07:51 AM

Its obvious to me that it goes

Einie meanie macca racca
Rare Eye Dominacca
Chica Choca Lollipoppa
Rom Pom Push

MY mother taught it to me and she's always right

Though my dad taught me

Rim Strim Pimarickle
Leather Bone Ring Tale
Tim Tom Barny Kieno

He's from norfolk though so can be forgiven

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 04:10 AM

O.K. I cants takes no more........

eena meena mackeracka
dare doe dominacka
chick a pop, a lollipop
a rom bom bush.
a rom bom bush.
a rom, a rom, a rom, a-rom, a, rom, bom, bush..... your Out

Anyways what irish ever agreed with each other ???

Wonder why we are fighting for over 8 hundred years !!!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,John Owens
Date: 12 Oct 09 - 11:11 AM

My Mother taught it to me on the Wirral in the 1940s

Our version -

       eena meena macca racca rare row domino
       arra barra judy arra um tum tush

the - ennie meenie minie mo etc. we also said but as something quite different

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,annwebster
Date: 08 Oct 09 - 04:31 PM

the one I learned from my mother. she was born in Darlington, uk in 1915., and she told me that she used to sing it with her friends around the street lamps near her house in central Darlington. I teach it now to my class of pupils in school.

'eena meena macca racca raro dominaca
alabacca jukalaca om pom push

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Peter Deery
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 01:47 AM

In croydon surrey,they say it like this

eeni meeni mickaraca rare rye dominaca chicharacka lollipop ping pang push

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Gweltas
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 07:11 PM

One I learned from my mother back in the early 1950's which she said was a counting out rhyme from her childhood (mid 1920's) in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
"Ink Pink Pepper and Ink Stooby Stawby Stybey Stink"
The person the word "stink" landed on was either "it", or was the one to be eliminated from the game, depending on the circumstances.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,macca
Date: 22 Feb 09 - 09:21 AM

I used to sing this in school in the 80's in NW England
The teacher would sing one verse and all the kids had to (try to) repeat it. Great

Eenie meeny mackeracka Dare-dum dominacker Ting-a-ling-a-lollipop Bing bang boosh!

Ratten-scatten do ra ra!

Essamany sallamany oowalla wallamany ,
Essamany sallamany oowalla wah!

A'bo a dic a doc a bo-bo a dic a doc a chuh!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,your mum
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 04:58 PM

eenie meenie mackarack rare eye dominaca cheeky beeky lolipopa rom pom push OUT :)

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Eva
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 05:25 PM

This is what I remember my mom singing... spelling is a complete guess!

Amalama comaloam umla vista, oh no no no no da vista, atchi batchi comalatchi, ew ah, ew alamini, ipsaliny gyspaliny I mean you.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,wystan
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 04:03 AM

For us it was always, and will always be

Eeney meeney macaraca
Air-eye dominaca
Chickaraca boomaraca
Bom bom French

This chorus was usually skipped to. We never gave a thought to the meaning of course, and never saw it written down. If it had been written, there would naturally have been fewer variations around the country.

Don't you love this kind of reminiscence? Mind you, I wouldn't want a whole morning of it.............off to work!

Wystan

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,the good ship sails on the ally ally ay nurs
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 04:03 AM

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Stephen (from Doncaster, South Yorkshire)
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 10:00 AM

We had a number of counting rhymes in the 70's.

[1]
We used: -
Eenie meenie minie mo
Catch a tiger/nigger by the toe
When he hollers, let him go
Eenie meenie minie mo.

We mostly said 'tiger', although 'nigger' was known of.
Incedentally, the word 'nigger' wasn't considered any more insulting than 'brummie', 'geordie' or 'scouse' are now.

[2]
Less well known, but more prized was: -
Eenie meenie mackeracker
rare rare dominacker
chicker packer lollipopper
om pom push
(the spelling is arbitrary!)

[3]
Quite popular was: -

Racing car number nine
Losing petrol all the time
How many gallons did it loose?

At this point the person whose 'spud' (i.e. fist) was counted on the word 'loose' would supply a number, say 'seven'. The rhyme was then completed using the supplied number, thus: -

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven
And out you must GO.

[4]
Later, we got lazy and the counting rhymes degenerated to this: -
Girl guide, boy scout, OUT.

[5]
And: -
Ittle ottle,
Shit in a bottle,
Ittle ottle,
OUT.

Nice, eh?

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,roxiraccoon
Date: 18 May 08 - 04:24 PM

We had this one while I was growing up in Fort Devens MA, in the early 80's:

Eanie Meanie Acha Cheanie,
Ah, Boo, Bubblinie,
Acha Chacha, Livaracha,
Out goes Y-O-U and you shall not be it!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Mar 08 - 12:42 PM

GUEST,teartse, thanks for sharing that example!

That's quite interesting reading, particularly so in light of the close similarities between that version and the German language version that was posted by Wilfried Schaum.

teartse, I hope that you continuing posting on Mudcat either as a member or as a guest. Membership is free and easy. Just click on the Membership link near the top, upper right hand corner. One of the benefits of joining Mudcat is that you can exchange private electronic messages with other members. I mention that because I'd love to learn more from you about slave-trade-Portuguese-Creole origin of the version in The Netherlands and other subjects, but that would be going off-topic too much in this thread.

Best wishes,

Azizi

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,teartse (from the netherlands)
Date: 23 Mar 08 - 11:45 AM

Especially in the light of the American version with the racist "n-word" readers might find a suggested slave-trade-Portuguese-Creole origin of the version in The Netherlands curiously interesting.

The Dutch version reads (I add a,what I think to be, equivalent in English phonetics as close as it gets, and a translation into Enlish of the no-nonsense lines):

Iene miene mutte      Eena meena mutte   
Tien pond grutten    Teen pond grutte    Ten pounds of groats
Tien pond kaas       Teen pond kaas      Ten pounds of cheese
Iene miene mutte      Eena meena mutte
Is de baas            Is the baas         Is the boss

I read in Wikipedia that according to Frank Arion, a writer from Paramaribo, Surinam,this originates from a song sung by black slaves on St Thomé, an island west of the African west coast,from where the slaves were transported on ships to America. The phonetic similarity is indeed very striking:

Iene miene muito      
Tempo de n'grutta
Tempo de n'kasala
Iene miene muito
Es de baixe.

Iene in that Creole language is a pluralizer. Miene is from the Portuguese word for girl: menina. Muito is the Portuguese word for much, many. Tempo means time. I do not know the origin of n'grutta, according to Frank Arion it means: to make love.Kasala comes from the Portuguese "casar se" which means to mary. Baixa is the Portuguese word for down, below.(Pronunciation of kasala and baixa is kashalla and basha.)

So it means:

Many girls.         
Time to make love,
Time to mary.
Many girls
Down there below.

Note: the male slaves were put on the upper decks, the women below in the lower decks.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 08:12 AM

A German version for counting out:
Eene meene muh - und aus bist du
(- and out are you)

Note: the ee is a flat e like in set, but longer. The single unstressed e is a murmur vowel, like the Hebrew shwa mobile.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Azizi
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 08:12 AM

Having re-read this sentence that I wrote in my last post to this thread, I'd like to change it this way:

...I think you probably wouldn't have for a number of reasons, including the fact that those non-White students would not have taken kindly to the use of that word when they were told {by older students in the know, and/or by adults} what society says it means.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 05:58 PM

I dare say we'd have still used [the "n word"] if we did [know what it meant]; kids are not very pc left to their own devices and at that time there was no general awareness of racism
-Apina

Apina, thanks for the honesty of your post. You described your childhood school as having no non-White students. I wonder if you and your peers would have openly used that "n word" in school if that school had had a number of students who were non-White. I think you probably wouldn't have for a number of reasons, including the fact that those non-White students would not have taken kindly to the use of that word when they were told {by older students in the know, and/or by adults} what it meant.

**

As a matter of record, in my African American neighborhood [in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s], the eenie meenie rhyme was always recited as "catch a tiger by the toe". I didn't know that it was ever anything different than that. And "catch a tiger by the toe" is the way that I've heard that counting out or choosing It rhyme recited by African American girls & boys in my adopted hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since I moved here in the late 1960s.

And as an aside, let me say that in the ten years that I've been formally collecting children's rhymes, including taunting rhymes, I've come across very few children's rhymes that refer to race or ethnicity or skin color.

I'm glad that this version of the eenie meenie rhyme-with its use of a derogatory referent-has largely been retired.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Apina
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 09:36 AM

Does anyone remember

The big ship sailed on the alley alley oh
The alley alley oh
The alley alley oh
The big ship sailed on the alley alley oh
On the last day of September

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
The bottom of the sea
The bottom of the sea
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
On the last day of September

There are other verses I can't quite remember - 'The Captain said "This will never never do"' was one of them. And I have often in recent times wondered if it was based on a real story of a shipwreck, but haven't managed to locate anything obvious. Our Eeny Meeny, in Birmingham England in the 60/70s was:

Eeny meeny miny mo
Catch a nigger by his toe
If he squeals, let him go
Eeny meeny miny mo

We were a school of 6-10 yr old middle class white kids and if anybody knew what nigger meant, I certainly didn't. I dare say we'd have still used it if we did; kids are not very pc left to their own devices and at that time there was no general awareness of racism. We had our own vocabulary of taunt and our own 'isms' too.

We had two school buses, one of which came past the Monyhull Hall mental hospital (as it then was). Inmates of the hospital were known to us as 'Monnies' (obviously derived from the name of the place) and this was, by extension, applied to kids who came in on that bus. "You're a Monny" rendered in a high-pitched Brummie accent takes me right back... We were little horrors.

Fortunately most kids grow out of it under the civilising influence of parents and teachers and generation by generation we leave it behind us. I hear no hint of it in my daughter's playground, but sadly they still find ways to be cruel to each other.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Melissa
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 06:59 PM

12 year old girl,
does your version go on to say:
(fifty dollars every day)
My mother told me to pick the very best one
and you are not IT?


My classmates pretty much abandoned EenyMeenie when we learned
Inka Binka
Bottle of ink
the cork fell out
and you stink

I don't know what "horse and goggle" means, but that's what I use with my gs troop:
"Ein Zwei Drei...horsengoggle"
At 'horsengoggle' we all put a hand into the circle...count the total number of fingers, and count off from there.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,man aged 25
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 08:09 AM

I thought that it went:

Eenie Meenie Makerarcker
Air- eye Dominaka
Chicka Packer
Aleraker
um Pum Push OUT!

Subject: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,a 12 year old girl
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 03:41 PM

honestly i heardd:

iney meanie miny mo chatch a nigger by his to if he hollars make him pay 50 dollars every day

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 06:55 PM

From Salford in the 1930s, where my mum lived as a girl, and passed on to me. Rendered phonetically, you understand, and four beats to the bar!

Eeny meeny mackeracka
Rare eye dummeracka
Chickeracka rare eye
Om pom push

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,G
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 03:02 PM

I was searching on the net to find out the real words to eenie, meenie, minie, mo etc. and i came across this site.
I am from England and all my life ive thought that it goes..
eenie, meenie, minie, mo catch a pity by it's toe if it squeals let it go. eenie, meenie, minie, mo
i asked some of my friends and the said the same rhyme replacing "pity" with 'robber' 'tigger' 'tiger' and 'fishy'. We then asked another person and they said n****r.

As for playing tag I used to only say 'your it' and that was only 7 years ago.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Jaycey
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 05:57 AM

I know yet another variation of "eena meena", which is this one (guessed spelling!):-

Eena meena mickeracka
Air eye dobinacka
Chickabacka chickabacka
Chinese choo-choo
Air-a-dona chickerona
Alla-balla wobstick
Out goes SHE!
Out goes another one and that is HE!

This was taught to me by my mother, who is now 91 and was brought up in Stockport (she's got a good memory!).

My brother (born 1945) always did "Dip dip dip, my blue ship" when his generation were picking "It", and at my school, we always did "one potato, two potato" (I was born in 1954, and brought up in Oxfordshire).

I also remember lots of other playground games and songs (such as "The big ship sailed on the alley, alley-oh") and skipping songs, using great long washing lines as the ropes, so lots of people could fit in - there were lots of songs which involved getting people in and out of the skipping group. A couple I remember are:-

Granny's in the kitchen
Doing a bit of knitting
IN comes a bogeyman
And pushes her OUT!

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
The next person follow ON!

Do children still play like this today? (I don't have any so I don't know.) Nobody was allowed to stay indoors during 'playtime' in my day, you were pushed outside come rain or shine!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 08:15 PM

Looks like no ones posted here in a while, but the version I learned as a kid for the flea song went (and I'm just spelling as things were pronounced)

flea
flea fly
flea fly flo
cumula cumula cumula vista
oohhhh no, not la vista
ta vista
eenie meenie mussolini
ooo ah ah,
ah ma-lini
ocha cocha cumoracha
oo ah ah
ish killy oaten boaten
o boe ba ditn dot
odden cotton sssshh

I remember learning it in fourth grade, and I remember the teacher teaching it to us because she said it would help us remember something. But I don't remember what, LOL.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Muttley
Date: 14 May 07 - 02:49 AM

Here's a couple from Oz if they haven't been posted yet. I remeber most of these (actually - ALL of them - - - - sad. I must be getting old(er).

Eeni Meenie macka racka
rare rye dominacka
Chickapop alollipop
Rang pang puss

Usually followed by:

Penny on the water, Tuppence on the sea
Threepence on the whirly-whirly
You're not 'he'

(UK or US kids might say "You're not 'it'")

Another goes

Eenie meenie makka rakka
rear rie damma nakker
rang pang push

Here're a few others:

Eerie oarie ickory am
Queerbie quorby raspberry jam
Filsy folsie Irishman
Tickle em, tackle em; bosh

AND

Intery mintery cuttery corn
Brambly briar and brambly thorn
Wire briar barrel lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew east and one flew west
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest

(which is probably how the bbok and film of that title came to be - a nonsense rhyme and the fact that cuckoos don't build nests)

Ickey ackey horses cackey (poo)
what colour will it be?

(child landed on would nominate a colour - preferably a long one to ensure they didn't get landed on for "it / he" . . . .

Yellow - Y..E..L..L..O..W

Whoever copped the "W" was "it" or "he" for the chasey game.

I went to a Chinese restaurant to buy a loaf of bread
He wrapped it up in a ten-bob note and this is what he said:
"Eli eli chickabye chickabye, saw a sausage - in bed!
Went to the other one, got me another one: Drop dead!"

AND FINALLY

I saw Esau sitting on a see-saw; I saw Esau sitting on a gate
I saw Esau sitting on a see-saw; I saw Esau kissing our Kate

Thes, of course were all 'counting rhymes to dtermine who was going to be doing the chasing in the game about to commence and were generally made as complicated as possible in order to prevent rigging the outcome.

I also recall one that seemed to end with "Bumbarumba gosh - Nineteen Hundred and One!" (1901 being the year Australia achieved Federation status and the right to govern itself independent of English veto oe approval).

Muttley

My wasn't that fun!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Bugsy
Date: 14 May 07 - 01:27 AM

The one we used to do in the early 50's was:

" I went into a china shop
to buy a loaf of bread
he put me in a pillow case
and this is what he said
eenie meeni macka racka
rairia dominacka
chicka racka lollipoppa
Om pom push."

and the one on "push" got pushed out of the equation,

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Spiperblaze
Date: 14 May 07 - 12:49 AM

My mother grew up in England and taught us this when we were young in America.... it went something like this

Enee meanie macker racker rare rye dominacker enee weanie wom pom poof chinese choo choo one two three ..a wooly wooly webster out goes he!!!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Sam
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 02:28 AM

eeny meeny macka racka dare-da dominaka
chicka-popper
lolli-popper
am bam bush OUT

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Sue A
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 05:26 PM

Since someone above mentioned Lakeland sheep counting I thought I'd offer you one to twenty in it ... but I hasten to add that not only do shepherds not use this counting system, but even end of 19th century references to it regard it as archaic... so when anyone actually DID use it I don't know. This is the version I know, but there are other variations, and similar versions in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, I understand:

yan, tyan, tethera, methera, pimp, sethera, lethera, overa, dovera, dick, yan-a-dick, tyan-a-dick, tethera-dick, methera-dick, bumfit, yan-a-bumfit, tyan-a-bumfit, tethera-bumfit, methera-bumfit, giggot.

And yes, in north Cumbria we too said the eeny, meeny, miney, moe rhyme with the n........ word as a counting out rhyme, as well as dip,dip,dip my blue ship (etc) and one potato, two potato (etc). And I've a whole list of other childhood rhymes and games which I noted down, so don't get me started!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Sherbs
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 04:52 PM

I learned a version of the 'Eeny Meeny rhyme' in school in the '70s on the Gower as a method of counting out. We used the version with the N word, but I don't think any of us actually knew what it meant, we just regarded it as just another nonsense word along with the rest of the rhyme.

We also had the 'one potato' rhyme but it was not used for counting out, it was more like a game in itself.

On another note, this is one that was around much later when I was a teenager and I've no idea where it comes from, it might have just been made up by the people who were chanting it.

I'll have a Degville Duckett
Duck it up and down
Bon Jovi, Cherry on a stick
I'll have a dry martini
shaken not stirred in a bidet
with a slice of lemon and two veg

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:56 AM

Okay, rereading that shake shake shake rhyme, there is a version of eenie meenie....

Calgon, take me away!!!

[now that line has nothing to do with eenie meenie. But some people may remember it from a tv commercial. See http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1340919 for more information about the popular use of that line.

I think that "Calgon, take me away" is also mentioned in this Mudcat thread: detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=1963880 Jingles you remember.

But maybe not since it's not a jingle.

Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to go off topic then, and now and well.. It's the Sagittarian in me.

Oops, I was about to do it again.

I'm outa here.

:o)

Enjoy!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:46 AM

Hmmm. Well that last rhyme I posted didn't have a version of "eenie meenie" or "kiss a girl behind the magazine". Sorry 'bout that.

Lemme try again with three other examples that I don't think I posted here yet.

First, here's the version of the eenie meenie rhyme I recited as a child in Atlantic City, New Jersey {1950s}

Eenie Meenie
Thumableenie
Oosh Ah Umbaleenie
Ahsie Mashie
Kokalaashie
I love you.

-snip-

Here's an example of an eenie meenie rhyme that I collected from an African American woman who lives in Pittsburgh:

Eenie Meenie Justaleanie
Eenie Meanie Justa Leanie
Ooca Acla Trackalacka, I love you.
Take a peach, Take a plum
Take a piece of bubble gum.
Teacher, Teacher, Dummy Dum
Gimme back my bubble gum.
Saw you with your boyfriend last night.
How do you know?
I was peekin' through the keyhold.
NOSY
Wash them dishes
LAZY
Jump out the window
CRAZY
Peaches on the tree, Bananas on the floor
Jump back baby. I Don't Love You No More!
- Donetta A. {Pittsburgh, PA 1984} http://www.cocojams.com/handclap_rhymes_example_0104.htm

-anip-

Also here's another rhyme that I think can be claimed by the 'eenie meenie miney mo' family, at least as a distant cousin:

itsy bitsy teeny witsy ew oh to0-ba-leeny outsy whatsy sellahawts say the magic words.. i have a stick of chewing gum and if you want the other half.. this is what you say.. amen. amen. amen-deyago sedeyago hookes pookes sallamoskes sis.. sis .. sis coom ba.. everybody eerybody RA-RA-RA.. BOO-BOO-BOO.. sitting on a trash can banging on a tin can i can you can nobody else can sitting on a bench.. nothnig to do.. along comes a little baby goochy gochy goo..

i learned this as when i was litte.
posted by brrittannee at March 25, 2005 http://blog.oftheoctopuses.com/000518.php

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Azizi
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:29 AM

Hopefully senewb will respond to your post greg. However, if you're talking about the second version of that rhyme that senewb shared, in my informal but relatively constant collection of rhymes over the Internet {from 2000 to date}m I've found a number of versions of those lines. Here's an example from http://blog.oftheoctopuses.com/000518.php

candy apple on a stick
makes my heart go 3,4 to 6
not because your dirrty
not because your clean just because
you kissed a boy behind
the magazine
hey girls wanna have some fun
here come(_name_) with his pants undone
he can wobble he can do the twist
but most of all he can kiss kiss kiss
now close your eyes and count to ten if you miss u mary him!
-posted by Lil gUm cHeweR at April 28, 2004

-snip-


Since the mid 1980s, I've been alert to children's rhymes performed by children {mostly Black children} in the Pittsburgh area.
I've heard "eenie meenie" [with the "catch a tiger by the toe" and the "ensty minsty miney mo" ending] used as a counting out rhyme. But I haven't [yet] heard that candy apple on a stick rhyme. However, it may indeed be recited here.

I've collected that 'apple on a stick' and 'kiss a boy behind a magazine' verse from two Pittsburgh adults who grew up in other US cities. And I found this version of all three of those rhymes in a book on Black American children's rhymes from Houston, Texas
Barbara Michels & Bettye White, "Apples On A Stick"
(Coward-McCann, New York, 1983, p. 17)


Shake, shake, shake
Eeny meany
That's a queeny
Ooh ba Thumblina
Ah cha ca che Liberace
Oh baby I love you
Yes I do
Take a peach
Take a plum
Take a piece of bubble gum
No peach
No plum
Just a piece of bubble gum
Ooshe ahshe
Ooshe ahshe
I want a piece of pie
The pie too sweet
I want a piece of meat
The meat too tough
I want to ride the bus
The bus too full
I want to ride the bull
The bull's too black
I want my money back
The money's too green
I want a diamond ring.

-snip-

Btw, the authors didn't note which category of rhyme this is.
I think it's either handclap rhyme or a jump rope rhyme.

Fwiw, it appears that a number of jumprope rhymes have become handclap rhymes and not vice versa. There's various reasons why jumping rope appears to be done less often. Imo, one key reason is that school teachers and other staff no longer provide jumpropes for girls to play with during school recess. Another key reason is that the clothes dryer has made obsolete the practice of hanging clothes outside on lines to dry. This removed children's access to those 'clothes lines' which were a 'free' source of jump ropes.

My opinion on those fake jump ropes they sell at stores nowadays-
"Bah Humbug!"

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: greg stephens
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 06:29 AM

Very unusual version,senewb. Where are we talking about?

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,senewb
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 05:53 AM

About 10 years ago when I was in school...

we used the enney meany miney mo - tiger version...but we also used

enney meany boocha keeny
be bo boperinni
acha cacha boomeracha
out goes y o u

(at this point you could continue if you didnt want that person to go out...)

not because youre dirty
not because youre clean
just because you kissed the boy
behind the magazine


... looking back, it's kinda weird. Has anyone ever heard or seen a version like this?

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 12:08 PM

From my Irish, but a long time in Englad, mother, when I was but a child.

eeni meenie macaraca rare oh
Domino,
hallapaca doodiaca
him pim flesh

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,YearsGoneBy
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 11:07 AM

I learned a similar version of this from an 8 yr.old friend whose parents were from the U.K., some 30 odd years ago.We used it as a secret count ...I couldn't tell you if that was it's original use or not,but it goes like this (spelling unknown)
   Eeny meeny macker racker
   Rare aye domma racker
   Ricker racker
   Romma racker
   Rom pom poosh.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 03:05 PM

I grew up in south central Kansas. The N word was used, except in our house...we used monkey.

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Peace
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 03:00 PM

History of eeny meeny

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 02:55 PM

Guest;Curious.

It appears from the linked article that the Brewers using this for advertising fully accepted the accusation that the original rhyme had (what would now be considered) racist overtones.
Bob Sullivan, vice president and chief marketing officer with Boulevard Brewing, said no one had complained about the beer billboard. "It's a choice campaign," he said.

"It has nothing to do with race, color or creed," Sullivan said. "You would be the first person who's brought that to our attention."

Sullivan thinks that time and the wording change in the rhyme have been enough to disassociate it from its racist past. He said it would be "a huge stretch" now to make the connection.


CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,curious
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 02:09 PM

Amy, here's a link to the newspaper article that spawned my question:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/15016407.htm

It certainly caused a stir. Despite disagreeing (not publicly) with the columnist, the company took down the billboard in question immediately after the article was printed.

I am most curious about the line where he quotes the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,Amy
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 05:18 AM

"(as the accuser claimed)"
I am bewildered as to what is meant by the above remark Guest:Curious.
Would you mind making yourself clearer on this point?
Thank you in advance for a response.
Amy

Subject: RE: eena meena mackeracka (children's rhymes)
From: GUEST,curious
Date: 14 Jul 06 - 01:39 AM

Does anyone know of a reliable source that could help me find the original version of the "eeny meeny" rhyme? A mini-scandal erupted near my hometown (accusing a company of racism for putting "eenie meenie minie moe" on a billboard) and I'm skeptical that the 'n-word' was a part of the rhyme's first occurance (as the accuser claimed).

Thanks for any suggestions and/or help!

The Midwestern US