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“Cinderella dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss a fellow, made a mistake, and kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…”

Context

This is a song one sings while jump-roping. According to my informant, you’re supposed to keep counting for as many jumps as the participant is able to go for before getting caught up in the rope or stopping. My informant heard of this particular jump rope song from her neighbor at a young age, and would sing it both with her as well as with other friends at school. She says it’s just a silly rhyming song, and that she’s unsure of how to analyze it any further. My informant says she remembers other jump rope songs she chanted as a child, but this is the only one she can remember in full due to its relative brevity.

My Analysis

When I heard my informant start talking about this particular jump-roping song, I immediately remembered also learning it in my childhood. However interesting enough, I only learned the song as a stand-alone song, and didn’t realize that it was associated with jump roping. Since the number “eight” rhymes with the previous lines of “take” and “snake,” I thought the counting was just a part of the song itself. But upon learning that my informant used it as a jump-roping song, the song itself immediately made a lot more sense.