BS: Thread Thread, The

Subject: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: nosluap57
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:19 PM

This thread is about thread.
That's what I said.
It's the thread thread!

Taken by some
with much dread.
Other's may think
inside their head,
"What's the point
of a thread thread?"

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:20 PM

Sew what?

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: MMario
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:22 PM

you're just trying to needle us, right? Can you pin down just what it seams this thread is about?

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:25 PM

Eye can't see it myself.

Right said thread, got to get the door off...


:D }(tG)

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Wesley S
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:26 PM

I like the song "Silver Threads and Golden Needles". Does that count?

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Janie
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:52 PM

Sew what? Sew what, you ask? Be sure to sew cotton cloth with cotton thread, that's what! (so the thread and cloth shrink in same proportions first time you wash it--leastways, that is what Granny always said.)

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: fat B****rd
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 04:55 PM

"A bobbinabobbin atreadlelatreadle" Sorry, it's the Goliath I'm drinking.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 05:07 PM

My wife's a quilter, and I ain't going here!

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 05:09 PM

You weep what you sew.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 05:11 PM

And maybe you weep when you sew if your eyes can't see the eye of the needle.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 05:12 PM

But maybe we're missing the point.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 06:44 PM

no, it's "as ye sew, so shall ye sweep" cut off loose threads need attention!

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 06:57 PM

Aah divvent want te stitch anyone up here but this is Tackin' the Mickey!

A Thread Thread? Yez keep bobbin' aroond mekkin' me Cross you sew 'n' sews

Aah'm just glad that aah'm a Singer - And so's me sister, Bernina!!

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 07:44 PM

To drag this kicking and screaming into music....

Spindle, bobbin and spool away...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 09:33 PM

Oh, so you want this to be a music thread?

Well, I gotta song for you-

BOB A-NEEDLE
{traditional African American children's game song}

Note: parenthesis represent lines sung by group

Bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Better run, bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Better hustle, bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

I want bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Want to find bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Going to catch bob-a-needl
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Turn around, bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

Oh bob, bob-a-needle
{Bob-a-needle is a running,}

from: Bessie Jones & Bess Lomax Hawes "Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs & Stories from the Afro-American Heritage" {University of Georgia Press, 1972, pps. 163-164}

Commentary from "Step It Down" :
"Bob-A-Needle" {bobbin needle?} is for purposes of this game, a pen, a jackknife, or a small stick of wood that can be passed rapidly from hand to hand. All the players but one stand in a tight circle, shoulder to shoulder, holding their hands behind their backs. The extra player stands in the center of the ring [circle]; she closes her eyes and hold the bob-a-needle high over her head in one hand. One of the ring players silently creeps up and takes the bob-a-needle from her hand and puts it behind his own back. The center player then opens her eyes and begins to sing the lead line of the song; the players in the circle sing the refrain...

The lead singer's lines are extemporaneous and can be sung in any order...During the singing, the players in the ring [forming the circle] from hand to hand, trying to move as little as possible in order not to make its location obvious. Bob-a-needle may travel clockwise or counterclockwise, and the players may reverse directions at will. The center player meanwhile reaches around the waist and feels the hands of each ring player in turn; she too may go in either direction, but she may not skip players nor run back and forth across the ring. When the center player reverses the direction of her search, she must signal this with the lead line,
"Turn, bob-a-needle!"

This game does not end when someone is caught holding the elusive bob-a-needle. Like most of Mrs [Bessie] Jones' games [from the Georgia Sea Isle Gullah tradition]that involve 'losing', the person simply pays a forfeit and/or takes over the center role so that can begin again. When the players tire, the accumulated forfeits are redeemed by the owners in a new sequence of play."

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 09:45 PM

See this adaptation of this traditional children's song that was recorded in 1964 by Chubby Checker {of "Let's Twist" fame:

GOT TO GET MYSELF TOGETHER
"This is a sad story
About a girl named Mary Mac
And her wondering lover Bob Needle
(Group) Oh! Softly
I can hear her calling
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bob
Hey Bob
Mary Mac Mac Mac
All dressed in black black black
Don't cha know I'm trying trying trying
Just to come on back back back
Cause I took a plane plane plane
But there was some rain rain rain
And there was no flyin flyin flyin
So I took a train train train
Oh Mary Mac Mac Mac
It went off the track track track
Can't you see I'm dying dying dying
Just to come on back back back
(Group) Oh! Softly
I can hear you calling
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bob
Hey Bob
(Instrumental Break)
Well I took a boat boat boat
But it wouldn't float float float
So I kept on a puffin puffin puffin
That was all she wrote wrote wrote
So I must wear my cross cross cross
And I bought a horse horse horse
But it just keeps runnin runnin runnin
All around the track track track
Baby I ain't lyin lyin lyin
Can't you see that I'm tryin tryin tryin
Don't cha know I'm tryin tryin tryin
Just to come on back
To Mary Mac
(Group) Oh! Softly
I can hear her holler
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle - Bobba Needle
Hey Bob
Hey Bob
Oh Yeah
Hey Bob"

From: http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/233121.html

Note the inclusion of the lines from the traditional African American children's rhyme "[Miss]Mary Mack".

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 10:00 PM

See my adaptation of that traditional children's game song:

Hey, bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle.
Hey, bob-ah-needle
Oh, where's your home?

Run, bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
Run, bob-ah-needle
Run back home!

Skip, bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
Skip, bob-ah-needle
Skip back home!

Hop etc.

March etc.

[end with]

Sit down, bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
bob-ah-needle
Sit down, bob-ah-needle
Sit down right now!

Azizi Powell {c} 4/7/2006

Directions:
The words are sung in unison. During the singing of the first verse the group of children can sway back and forth or do a simplified bass sounding foot stompin [steppin]movement. Another action word is used in each subsequent verse. The order of the verbs will probably become a fixed for that particular group. Members of the group perform the movement indicated by the action word.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 10:13 PM

Oh, Brother. (I don't have a singer.)

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 11:07 PM

Oh serge it......and flock it too while yer at it, says the pricking of my thumbs.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: DMcG
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 06:45 AM

Coates #3334 = DMC #819 (more or less, anyway)

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 09:19 AM

Yeah-whatever DNcG said.

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 09:23 AM

I'm right back

front and center.

no turning round for me!

****

How come nobody has come up with the obvious?

Trying to figure out the point of this thread is like looking for a
needle in a haystack!

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Mo the caller
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 12:16 PM

Your needle had no thread Azizi.
When we played that game (in the 50's in London at adult supervised family or childrens parties)we held a thread (well,ok then a loop of string) with a curtain ring threaded onto it. This was passed from hand to hand and the one in the middle had to find the ring. I don't remember a chant though. "Queenie, queenie who's got the ball
Is she big or is she tall
Is she fat or is she thin
Is she like a rolling pin"
must have been for a different game, maybe we stood in a line and someone stood in front with her back turned and threw the ball over her shoulder.
Funny the way memory works, I can't really remember playing it, only the rhyme.
Must be losing the thread

Subject: RE: BS: Thread Thread, The
From: Azizi
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 01:23 PM

Opps, I just realized I spelled DMcG initials wrong. And nobody pointed it out.

Sorry 'bout that. No harm intended.

****

Hey, Mo! Whatcha know?
[Sorry, I couldn't resist that one].

As to children's passing along a hidden object games, I don't remember playing those "bob-a-needle" or "queenie, queenie who's got the ball" games from my childhood or when my children were little.

But I do remember reciting "Doggie, Doggie where's your bone?" If there was rhyming line that goes with it, I don't remember it.

Maybe it was the almost rhyme "look for it on your way home" Naw.

Okay, how about "Call for help on the telephone". Nope.

I'll probably never remember what that rhyming line was for "Doggie Doggie where's your bone".

Oh, what's the point of trying?!