1. “Lemonade, crunchy ice, sip it once sip it twice”

2. “Turn around touch the ground kick your boyfriend out of town”

The informant is a six year old girl who has gone to day camp for the past two summers. She said that she learned these two short limericks while she was at camp from her bunkmates.

The informant goes to camp in Long Island, New York and the summers there are extremely humid which makes a hot day seem even hotter. It makes sense why the informant would sing the first limerick at camp during the sweltering summer. To me,  Lemonade connotes getting refreshed and summer.  I asked the informant when she sings this and she said “in between activities.”

The informant said that she sings “Kick your boyfriend out of town” in between activities as well. From my understanding, the age group that the informant is in at camp is separated from the “boys side,” so the girls tend to stick together as they go about their day. Given the age of the informant and the division of genders at camp, it makes sense why a group of girls would sing “turn around touch the ground kick your boyfriend out of town.”

What’s interesting about these two folk speeches is that they take place “in between activities.” It may be a tiny liminal phase, but regardless, that’s a liminal phase. These girls are singing these songs in a transition stage, whether it be as they wait to go into the dining hall or as they walk across camp from the soccer field to the tennis courts, and from that I can infer that these songs are used as a buffer for the space “in between activities.”