Game song: Old Mother Grey

Subject: ADD: Game song: Old Mother Grey
From: Azizi
Date: 09 May 05 - 10:17 AM

In my research on continuity and change in children's rhymes I learned about this very old British children's game song:

OLD MOTHER GREY

Old Mother Grey, may we go out to play?
Mother Gray: 'No, it's raining'.
Children: "No, it isn't, the sun is shining
Mother Grey: "All right, you may go out to play'.

[The children rush off, and play around, perhaps moving out of sight.]

Old Mother Grey calls: "Children, it's dinner time!"
Children: 'Coming mother.'
Mother: 'Where have you been?'
Children: 'We've been to London to see the Queen.'
Mother: 'What did she give you?'
Children: 'A loaf of bread as big our head, a piece if cheese as big as our knees, a lump of jelly as big as our belly, and a teeny weeny six pence."
Mother: "Where's my share?
Children: 'Up in the air.'
Mother; 'How shall I get it?'
Children; 'Stand on a chair.
Mother; 'And if I fall?'
Children all laugh and shout out: "We don't care."

[Old Mother Grey runs after them, and whoever she catches becomes the next 'Mother'.]

Source: Source: Iona and Peter Opie: Children's Games in Street and Playground; [Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969; pp. 307-308

-snip-

Here's a variant from the Caribbean:

WE DON'T CARE

Children, children
Yes, Mama.                 
Where yo' been to?
Granmama.
What she give yo'?
Two apples.
Where yo' put them?
On the shelf.
How will yo' get them?
Stand on a chair.


[As the "children" answer "Mama" they creep closer and closer to her until finally "Mama" turns and chases them"].

Source: Grace Hallworth: "Down By The River: Afro-Caribbean Rhymes, Games and Songs for Children" [New York Scholastic Inc, 1996]

-snip-

I also have heard this variant from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania {1998}:

CHILDREN CHILDREN

Children, Children
Yes, Teacher.
Where have you been?
To Grandmom's.
What did she give you?
Bread and cheese.
Where's my share?
Up in the air.
How can I reach it?
Stand on the chair.
Suppose I fall?
We don't care.
Ha, Ha, Ha. Class is dismissed.
London Bridge is falling down,    {Sing the "London Bridge" tune}alling down falling down,
London Bridge is falling down.

Back to detention. {Teacher's voice}

-snip-

And two days ago I found a variant of this rhyme called "Club Fist"
in a book that Hallowfox sent me {Thanks, Hallowfox}!!

CLUB FOOT
Call:                What you got there?
Response        Club fist
Call                Where's my share?
Response        Rat's got it.
Call                Where's the rat?
Response        Cat's got it.
Call                Where's the cat?
Response        Rope hung him.
Call                Where's the rope?
Response        Fire burnt it.
Call                Where's the fire?
Response        Water quenched it.
Call                Where's the water
Response        Ox drunk it.
Call                Where's the ox?
Response        Dead and buried by the old church steeple,
                And whoever cracks a smile will get a hard pinch

[anyone who laughs gets pinched]

Source: "Did You Feed My Cow?", Margaret Taylor Burroughs

-snip-

I'm wondering if any of these game songs are familiar to anyone or if you know of any game songs that are similar to them.

Thanks.