Category Archives: Game

Obo Shin Otten Totten

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student, Journalist
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 29th, 2014
Primary Language: English

My Informant described this game that she played as a child at summer camp as similar in play to “Down by the Banks”, though the tune was different than most versions of “Down by the Banks” that she heard (Unfortunately, she could not remember the specific tune). Children would gather and sit in a circle and place their hands on top of their neighbors hand, so that each child could clap the next child’s hand. The children would go through the rhyme until the end of the count of ten, and whoever was clapped on ten was out. The game would continue until it was two children left, who would push their arms to each other, until the count of ten, when whoever’s arm was near their body would be out.

The rhyme’s words were this:

Obo shin otten totten, nay nay, I am boom boom boom, itty bitty otten totten, obo shin otten totten, obo shin otten totten boom! one two three four five six seven eight nine ten!

She remembered the game fondly, and that it was a good way for kids new to the camp to bond, and older kids to help younger kids acclimate to the camp environment.

It’s interesting to me how this clapping game is translated from group to group, as the general clapping motions stay relatively the same, while depending on the group, the melody or rhythm will change. I am not sure what this says about each group, but it is interesting that the motions stay consistent, while the song almost always changes fairly significantly.

Stella Stella Olla

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student, Journalist
Residence: Los Angeles, CA; Vancouver, Canada
Performance Date: April 16, 2014
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Informant is a University student from Canada, and claimed to have a fuzzy memory of her childhood, and thus did not remember everything about the game. But she offered what she did know, and was intrigued by the similarities between the two games, but said she preferred her version, simply because of nostalgia. We were seated with the Informant’s friend, who was from the United States (possibly Northern California) and knew the version called “Down by the Banks” though she did not offer the rest of the rhyme she knew, as she got distracted by another conversation.

Informant: Pausing, thinking. Like playground games?

Author: Can I give you an example? Yeah, like playground games!

Informant: Yeah, an example would help.

Author: Okay, I know when I was a kid would would play this game called “Down By The Banks of the Hanky Panky” and like, every time I talk to people about it they give me a different rhyme for it, but when I was a kid, it would go, and you would all sit in a circle, like this [crossed leg with hands out facing the sky and wrists rested on knees] and you would slap the other person’s hand, in a circle, the next person’s hand, until you were down to two people, and you’d like [demonstrates pushing hands back and forth]

Informant: Oh, we called that “Stella Stella Olla”

Author: Tell me about “Stella Stella Olla” that’s awesome.

Informant: It… [singing] “Stella Stella Olla clap clap clap” I don’t even know the words, just like sounds, like [rocking head back and forth] “Asha Cheeka Cheeka Asha Cheeka Cheeka, Below, Below, Below, Below, Below, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5” and on the five it was the person who

Author: Who got slapped and they were out?

Informant: Yeah

Author: Oh okay, cool. And then how would you… So you would sit in a circle and everything or. Or how would you play it?

Informant: Yeah and you would [holding hands out] Can. Can I get like. Two people’s hands here?

Author: Yeah. [Other party and Author place hands in Informant’s hands.]

Other Party: [Big Laugh, then singing] Down by the Banks of the…

Informant: And like. No like this. [Places downward facing hand of Other Party upward] And then you would [slaps Other Party’s hand] “Stella Stella Olla” [Clapping to each word, lazily.] And you would like pass it around, and go.

Author: No, no yeah, I gotcha, I gotcha. Okay, cool.

Informant: And then the last one would be like this. [Performs a clapping gesture as though it were a pair of hands, slapping one hand to the center (a fist), and then the other hand, and continuing this pattern up and down.] 1,2, 3, 4, 5.

Author: Okay. Cool. And if it was just two people, this…

Informant: Yeah.

Author: Okay, gotcha. That’s really cool.

Informant: Mmhmm.

Author: For us it was like [performs separate version] so that’s like, very, very similar.

Informant: The rhythms are the same, but the words and melodies are like.

Author: Right, right.

It’s interesting to me how this clapping game is translated from group to group, as the general clapping motions stay relatively the same, while depending on the group, the melody or rhythm will change. I am not sure what this says about each group, but it is interesting that the motions stay consistent, while the song almost always changes fairly significantly.

“This is Buggy”

Nationality: Pakistani-American
Age: 11
Occupation: Student
Residence: Torrance, CA
Performance Date: 3/24/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Urdu

Context: The informant is an 11-year-old resident of Southern California, of Indo-Pakistani descent. She lives with two older siblings, parents, and grandparents and attends a public middle school in the South Bay area. She has close friends of many different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and the following narrative sequence is one she learned from one of these friends while she was still in elementary school.

Transcript of video:

“This is Buggy!

Buggy says hi!

Buggy can fly!

Yay for Buggy!

Oops, Buggy died.”

Analysis: The informant says she learned it only a couple years ago and remembered it because she “thought it was cool” and “kind of funny”. The informant relates that she enjoys many types of art, including drawing and painting, and often is in charge of making signs for events among her friend group, like yard sales and party invitations. So the personal appeal to a young artist or craftsperson is obvious.

I think the general appeal here is similar: the fact that with a few simple drawings and letters, an entire story can be told with little effort. The idea that there are just enough fingers on a person’s hand to write “T-H-I-S” on the knuckles, and then fold different fingers to show different words, must be appealing to kids who are just starting to appreciate the difficulties of both language and tactile crafts such as beading, painting, or cursive handwriting. The simple story is also humorous and a common enough occurrence: trying to save a little bug only to find that you unfortunately don’t know your own strength; or simply the humor of seeing something that causes many small children, especially girls, some anxiety–“creepy crawlies”–being put out in such a messy and unceremonious manner helps them cope with those anxieties indirectly while not being called out as a “scaredy cat” or a “sissy”.

Clapping game rhyme/song

Nationality: Pakistani-American
Age: 11
Occupation: Student
Residence: Torrance, CA
Performance Date: 3/24/2014
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant is a Pakistani-American 11-year-old girl and a 6th grader at a public school in Torrance, CA.  The following clapping rhyme is a two-person game she learned in first grade.

Content:

“I went to a Chinese restaurant

To buy a loaf of bread, bread, bread

She asked me what my name was

And this is what i said, said, said

My name is

L-I-L-I, Pickle-eye pickle-eye

pom-pom beauty, sleeping beauty

Then she told me to freeze freeze freeze

And whoever moves, loses.”

The word “freeze” may be said either once or three times, and at that moment the players must both freeze. The informant also showed me the two kinds of clapping sequence that are used for the two parts of the game, one for the first four lines, and the other for lines 6-8.

Analysis: At first glance, the rhyme seems like complete nonsense; but upon further examination, the rhyme could conceal casual racism. “Li” could be an East Asian name. Rhyming it with “pickle-eye” (which itself could be referring to culturally unfamiliar food which is automatically dismissed as unnatural or revolting–for instance recall the urban legend where neighborhood cats/dogs were disappearing after immigrants from [insert Asian country here] moved in), which is essentially a nonsense word, could be meant to show disrespect towards all people with similarly “Asian” names. Then referring to oneself as a “pom-pom beauty” (perhaps referring to a cheerleader’s pom-poms) and “sleeping beauty” (the classic western fairy tale) as a contrast to the “Li” lady is like proclaiming, I am an all-American girl, like a cheerleader or Sleeping Beauty, and you are not.

Clapping game rhyme/song

Nationality: Pakistani-American
Age: 11
Occupation: Student
Residence: Torrance, CA
Performance Date: 3/24/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Urdu

Context: The informant is an 11 year old girl of Pakistani descent. She is a 6th grader at a public school in Torrance, CA.  Her social groups include friends of many different religious and ethnic backgrounds. The following clapping rhyme is a two-person game she learned in first grade.

Content:

“Lemonade,

iced tea

Coca-cola,

Pepsi

Lemonade, iced tea, Coca-cola, Pepsi,

turn around, touch the ground, kick your boyfriend out of town, freeze”

Another version from the same informant begins with the same line:

“Lemonade,

crunchy ice

Beat it once,

beat it twice,

Lemonade, crunchy ice, beat it once, beat it twice,

turn around, touch the ground, kick your boyfriend out of town, freeze”

In the last line of both versions, the players may perform the actions sung: they turn in a circle, drop to a crouch to touch the ground, and may even stand up and make a kicking motion. At the word “freeze,” both players must stop moving, and the first to move loses.

Analysis: I learned a version of this game, similar to the second version recorded, from cousins who went to the same school district as the informant. Instead of the words “beat it,” however, the words “pour it” were used, and the last line was completely omitted. The rhyme ended with the players crying “Statue!” and the first person to move, lost. Somehow, however, a player was allowed to tickle the other person to get them to move, even though tickling would seemingly count as moving. 

The incorporation of Coca-cola and Pepsi, both globally-recognizable drink names, into the rhyme is evidence of how popular the drink is worldwide and how it has been incorporated into “American” or “Southern California” culture, that children are mentioning it in their songs along with the ever-popular summer drink of lemonade.

The last line “Turn around, touch the ground” seems to be echoing some long-dead magic ritual, especially when followed by a mention of the singer’s boyfriend (keeping in mind that 11 years old, the majority of children likely have nothing close to a romantic partner yet). Also, the pouring of the drink–once, then twice–would seem to recall the adult practice of pouring drinks for oneself and one’s partner after a long day or at a party. This shows this age-group’s (perhaps unconscious) desire to  mimic the adult relationships they see with their own peers.