Category Archives: Musical

Rhyme – Girl Scouts of the USA

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Calabasas, CA
Performance Date: February 20, 2008
Primary Language: English

Girl Scout Rhyme

My momma

She gave me a dollar

She told me to buy a collar

But I didn’t buy no collar

Instead I bought some bubblegum

BAZOOKA, ZOOKA bubble gum (x2)

My momma

She gave me a quarter

She told me to tip the porter

But I didn’t tip no porter

Instead I bought some bubblegum

BAZOOKA, ZOOKA bubble gum (x2)

My momma

She gave me a dime

She told me to buy a lime

But I didn’t buy no lime

Instead I bought some bubblegum

BAZOOKA, ZOOKA bubble gum (x2)

My momma

She gave me a nickel

She tole me to buy a pickle

But I didn’t buy no pickle

Instead i bought some bubblegum

BAZOOKA, ZOOKA bubble gum (x2)

My momma

She gave me a penny

She told me to buy some bubblegum

But I didn’t buy no bubblegum

Because I’m sick of bubblegum

BAZOOKA, ZOOKA bubble gum (x2)

Kyrsti learned this rhyme when she was in the girl scouts, around when she was eight years old, however, she doesn’t remember which retreat with her girl scouts that she learned this particular rhyme on. The basic idea was that every girl in the group sat in a circle with both feet in the middle. Then they started singing this song and whenever one chorus finished, whomever the last word landed on had to take her foot out of the circle. This was continued until there was only one girl left and then she was declared the winner and given a prize of some sort, sometimes-specific badges were given out to the scouts if the game was particularly exciting. She described that this chant was a lot like “eenie, meenie, mini, mo” and was based off of it but that they changed the words as a part of a bonding experience with all the girls.

Kyrsti believes that the chant itself is not what is important. She believes the process of creating the rhyme and then getting to play it with her friends is what made this so important. She described that all the games in the girl scouts were meant to build friendships, build leadership skills and learn. She also described, when prompted, how girl scouts was all about folklore. This chant was just one example. She pointed out how, every night they would sit around a campfire and tell stories, stories that had been passed down by former girl scouts. She believes that one of the core values of girl scouts is carrying on a tradition, which fits very well into the idea of folklore.

Not having been in the girl scouts myself, hearing all this information made me realize that there is a lot more to girl scouts than I had previously thought. It is clear to me from Kyrsti that the stories passed down through girl scouts include a lot of ancient folklore stories and that the girl scouts are constantly reinventing things in order to create their own new folklore to be passed on to the next generation of girl scouts.

Annotation: This Girl Scout rhyme is also found on Scout Web, a wbesite that provides girl scouts with many Girl Scout songs.

Scouting Web. 2 May 2008 <http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/Traditions/

Songs.htm>.

Children’s Game

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County, CA
Performance Date: March 20, 2008
Primary Language: English

Children’s rhyme

Miss Mary Mac, Mac, Mac

All dressed in black, black, black.

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons

All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For 50 cents, cents, cents.

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants

Jump over the fence, fence, fence.

They jumped so high, high, high

They reached the sky, sky, sky

They never came back, back, back

Till the 4th of July, July, July.

Claire doesn’t remember when she first heard this rhyme but she does remember she was fairly young, probably around seven or eight years old, when she learned the song in its entirety. She first learned the full song when she entered fourth grade and met everyone in her class on the first day. She described how on the first day of fourth grade the teacher sat everyone down, taught them the rhyme and then paired everyone up over and over to practice it. She doesn’t think there is any real significance behind it except for it being a childhood game that helped her meet everyone in her class and really bond. When she thinks back on it, it reminds her of her childhood and fond memories of playing with her friends and meeting so many new people.

Claire believes that there may not be any real significance behind this rhyme; however, it was one that every child in her school knew and has been passed down in her school every year. She described how each year, whoever entered fourth grade, would spend the first day learning this song. Claire believes it was meant to be a bonding experience for everyone and to get everyone to know each other better. She remembers how on her first day she met some of her best friends by being paired up with tem and reciting this rhyme. She said it was such a good bonding experience because many people had heard the rhyme but not in its entirety so by being paired up and learning the rhyme in its entirety, you got to help each other out and really form strong friendships. She also pointed out how it taught her to be patient, especially if one of her partners wasn’t picking up on it as quickly.

While I believe that this is a normal childhood rhyme, it is interesting how a very popular rhyme that is known by many people all over, was held so special in her school. But this story proves that folklore is used to create social bonds between people because you create this special connection when you are able to share a song, story or joke with someone because you learned it together and thus is forever engrained in your brain. This story proves how Folklore can take something as mundane as a children’s rhyme and make it into an experience where an entire class of forty students connects and forever stays connected through that rhyme.

Annotation: This rhyme can be found in the book called Miss Mary Mac All Dressed in Black: Tongue Twisters, Jump-Rope Rhymes and Other Children’s Lore from New England (Paperback), a book that highlights the most popular rhymes, riddles and tongue twisters for kids.

Hastings, Scott E. Miss Mary Mac All Dressed in Black: Tongue Twisters,

Jump-Rope Rhymes and Other Children’s Lore from New England (Paperback).

August House, 1990. 2 May 2008 <http://books.google.com/

books?id=KB6vAAAACAAJ&dq=miss+mary+mac>.

Jump Rope Rhyme

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 10, 2008
Primary Language: English

Child’s jump rope rhyme

(Girls name) is having a baby

(Boys name) is going crazy

They went to the doctor and the doctor said

Boy, girl, twins or an alien

Claire played this game when she was a bit older, around thirteen, and she remembers she began hearing this jump rope song right after they had just had their first sex-ed class. A group would gather together and someone would be jumping in the middle of two other people and they would chant this song. You would keep jumping until you no longer could jump anymore and whatever you landed on, boy, girl, twins, or an alien, was what everyone would predict you would have as a child. Now Claire knows its obviously a silly game, but at the time if someone landed on alien or they wanted a girl instead of a boy, she said that people would get really upset about it, especially if you landed on alien because you would be taunted all the rest of recess for it.

Claire believes that her and her friends were so embarrassed by this jump rope game because it was children joking about something that is kind of serious. The topic of having a child at that age is something that is slowly becoming a possibility, Claire described, and to sing a song about it made people nervous but adventurous at the same time. She described it as children dabbling with concepts they don’t understand but are trying to grasp the concept of.

I completely agree with Claire that this rhyme would be appealing because of the material being sung about in the song.  I believe that there are a lot of childhood rhymes that address subjects that may be more adult in subject but seem child like so it helps kid to talk about them without being uncomfortable. Through folklore such as children’s rhymes, topics can be addressed and taught to children but in a playful manner so that children can learn about topics such as babies, sex, and other adult topics without being uncomfortable. Thus this children’s rhyme demonstrates that and as Claire said, it helped them talk about a topic but jokingly.

Children’s Rhyme

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 10, 2008
Primary Language: English

Children’s Rhyme

(Girls name and boys name) sitting in the tree

K I S S I N G

First comes love then comes marriage

Then comes the baby in the baby carriage

Claire first witnessed this chant when she was in third grade. There was a girl and a boy in her grade, she does not remember who they were, who ended up holding hands for a brief five seconds, were mercilessly teased for having done so by chanting this little rhyme. It was repeated over and over again until either both the girl and the boy ran away embarrassed, one ran away embarrassed, or one owned up to what happened and they became giggly. Claire remembers the first time it happened to her was when she was around thirteen years old and she shared her first kiss with a guy in her class and someone witnessed it and immediately began the chant and soon many others joined in. While she was embarrassed during the chant, she acknowledges that being caught was kind of fun and then if the boy actually liked you back it cemented you two together or at least made it known that you were with him.

Claire believes that this chant is meant to poke fun at relationships and embarrass the other people but it also highlights childhood insecurities about boy/girl relations. While the goal of the chant was to make the two people feel embarrassed, by making fun of the other people, it allowed children to cover up their own insecurities about boy/girl relationships.

I agree with Claire’s perspective on this and I also think this is another one of those childhood rhymes that addresses an adult subject without directly addressing it. This chant made Claire and her friends feel like they were being involved in the adult world of dating. Thus this type of folklore was almost like a rite of passage in verbal form, allowing Claire and her friends as well as other kids to start to understand the dating world and enjoying the opposite sex without completely and fully immerging themselves into it before they were ready.

Rhyme

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Customer Service
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 13, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish, French

Rhyme – Cinderella

Cinderella, dress in yellow, went upstairs to kiss the fellow. She made a mistake and kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take…

Jesslynn heard this rhyme in the second grade when she was about 6. She said that the rhyme is used when her and other girls would jump rope. Also, she mentioned that the connotation behind is that girls in the age group get nervous about kissing boys so they might kiss something else because you are supposed to have your eyes closed when you are kissing. Since her eyes are closed, she cannot see exactly where she’s kissing and she might kiss something unexpected such as the wall and bust her lip, thus needing slight medical attention.

I agree, her point about the girls being nervous is right on. However, it also might be that since girls are in the ‘boys have koodies’ stage, they themselves don’t want to kiss boys. Therefore they chant about a figure that is supposed to be older and since they might have the frame of mind that kissing is yucky, they chant about the woman not kissing the guy. Also the fact that Cinderella is the female figure is quite interesting. Cinderella is one of the favorites out of all the Disney princesses, no its not surprising that the chant was made about her.

There is also a variation to this chant. In some another version, instead of going upstairs, she goes downstairs to kiss the fellow. Its not much of a difference, however it might be just a geographical thing for why there is a difference.